Victoria's youngest prisoners inside the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct are being regularly assaulted, hospitalised, and have tried to escape custody, according to documents obtained by the ABC.
The WorkSafe documents reveal a disturbing picture of life inside the facility with both young people and the staff who look after them falling victim to acts of violence – including being stabbed in the forehead with a makeshift weapon.
More than 700 pages of documents show that over a recent 18-month period, young people in custody regularly assaulted other detainees and staff, with many requiring hospitalisation.
There were a number of escape attempts, and what was described as a "riot" on the basketball courts.
Parkville houses boys and girls, including some children as young as 10 years old.
Victorian opposition spokesman Matthew Bach called for urgent reform and told the ABC he wouldn't want to put his "dogs" in Parkville.
But Youth Justice Minister Natalie Hutchins said Parkville was fit-for-purpose and had been refurbished, to improve staff and client safety.
She also said the department was focusing on staff safety and the number of category one incidents dropped 50 per cent between January 2020 and June 2021.
A Parkville Youth Justice worker who spoke to the ABC on the condition of anonymity said the Department of Justice and Community Safety was struggling to retain and recruit new staff due to the centre's dangerous reputation in the industry.
"You listen to the war stories of Parkville and Malmsbury and you don't hear that in prison," they said.
Situation inside centre 'worst that it has ever been'
WorkSafe inspectors visited the site dozens of times between January 2020 and June 2021.
On April 7, 2020, two youth workers and a young person were taken to hospital after a young person pushed through a security gate.
"Numerous fights broke out between young people," the documents said.
The reports reveal the chaos that followed, with young people blocking staff from entering areas, stealing keys, and attempting to escape, throwing a tear gas canister back at the security team trying to subdue them.
"The YP (young person) struck the employee and when on the ground, took the employee's keys from key belt and proceeded back outside," the report said.
"The YP attempted to open the gate to the oval but was unsuccessful; — Employees attempted to contain the YP at the gate but were blocked by YP; — A YP was passed the keys and ran toward the unit exit and proceeded to unlock the gate to the Westgate Unit Basketball court.
"Employees retreated into the unit for their own safety."
In March 2021, WorkSafe inspectors noted that Parkville Youth Justice workers said a lack of staff was causing significant lockdowns and increasing client aggression.
The WorkSafe inspector described staff as fatigued and overwhelmed by "the lack of support by management to address this high-risk issue".
"Major staffing and operational problem, it is currently significantly impacting on workers' health and safety and mental health," the inspector said.
In the more than 700 pages of documents, WorkSafe issued 14 Inspection Reports, 35 Entry Reports and three Improvement Notices, over an 18-month period.
'No accountability' for safety, worker says
The documents do not give a full picture of violence inside the centre, as the assaults of children by children are not a WorkSafe matter unless employees are involved.
But the reports do give insight into the highly secretive centre.
A Parkville youth justice worker told the ABC it was hard to have faith in WorkSafe, as they believed the authority had failed to attend incidents such as fires started by young people.
The staff member told the ABC WorkSafe were just "ticking boxes" and not making it a safer workplace.
"They're employed by the government to inspect a government's facility … it's never going to work," they said.
The Department of Justice and Community Safety was last year convicted and fined $100,000 for failing to provide a safe workplace in relation to two separate assaults on youth justice workers in 2018.
WorkSafe said inspectors worked to ensure duty holders complied with their obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
"WorkSafe can and does take enforcement action against employers who do not meet their obligations under the OHS Act, including Government entities," a spokesperson said.
One of the documents briefly describes a young person's unprovoked attack on a youth justice worker, stabbing them in the forehead with a makeshift weapon of a metal screw attached to a pen lid, on March 17, 2021.
The staff member went to hospital with a laceration to the forehead and the hands.
"Discussions were had about the cell searching and the availability of the weapon," the inspector said.
"I have requested that the site undertake a review of the search procedures … and look at including a metal-detecting wand as part of the searches."
In March of last year, WorkSafe issued the youth justice centre with two improvement notices in relation to three incidents that were notified to the authority.
An inspector said: "I formed a reasonable belief that the duty holder has failed to maintain systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practical, safe and without risks to health in relation to incident investigation of Occupational Violence and Aggression incident."
Youth inmates 'retraumatised' in custody
It's not just youth justice staff who are at risk.
The documents paint a bleak picture of the safety of young people inside Parkville Youth Justice Precinct.
The documents reveal a young person attempted suicide in August 2020 while being kept in isolation.
The young person was taken to hospital and returned to the centre later that night.
On October 27, 2020, a young person who was known to suffer from epileptic seizures was found unconscious in their room.
"It is unclear whether YP had a seizure or not," the documents said.
On June 29, 2020, a young person attempted to escape from the basketball court.
"[The injured person] has climbed the pipe structure to the razor wire at 6.08pm and has become entangled in the razor wire — resulting in serious lacerations to their hands, arms and chest," the documents revealed.
Former staff at another facility, the Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre in regional Victoria, have previously told the ABC they fear there will be a death at that centre, which houses young men aged over 15, if changes aren't made.
But insiders have told the ABC that conditions at Parkville, which houses younger children, are worse than that of Malmsbury.
Opposition Youth Justice spokesman Matthew Bach said Parkville wasn't fit for purpose.
Mr Bach said if the Coalition won government in November, it would provide greater mental health services and mandatory educational requirements for young people in youth justice centres.
"Through these documents we've seen that the environment here is certainly not therapeutic," he said outside the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct.
"We have so many young people with mental health concerns, who are only being retraumatised and ultimately further criminalised as a result of being placed in our youth justice facilities."
Youth Justice Minister Natalie Hutchins said Parkville was an effective and fit-for-purpose custodial facility and there had been no escapes or "riots" in more than five years.
"There has also been a 50 per cent reduction in the number of Category One incidents at the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct between January 2020 and June 2021," Ms Hutchins said.
"Not only is our system safer, but it’s also delivering better outcomes for young people, with Victoria recording the lowest rate of young people aged 10 to 17 years under Youth Justice supervision in Australia."
She also said there had been several refurbishments and upgrades at the Parkville site and a range of measures had been introduced to improve safety.
"Our focus on our staff and on safety has driven down the number of serious incidents in custodial facilities by 42 per cent and reduced serious assaults by 59 per cent over the past three years," she said.
The Victorian Children's Commissioner recently expressed disappointment that the Victorian government had not committed to raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years old or amending laws so that children under 16 cannot be held in custodial settings.
The state government is instead working on a proposal to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12.
The opposition declined to state whether it supported or opposed the children's commissioner's recommendations.
