More prison workers attacked as youth justice ‘crisis’ deepens

Neil Mitchell says there’s a “crisis” in Victoria’s youth detention system and something needs to be done now.

And it appears staff agree, with workers at the Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre walking off the job on Friday.

It comes following allegations of yet another brutal attack on a Malmsbury staff member.

Two 18-year-olds and a 19-year-old will face court over the attack that happened about 7.30pm on Thursday.

It’s alleged the guard was struck up to 19 times in the head with a plastic cricket bat after coming to the aid of another worker who was being attacked.

That came just a day after another worker was allegedly stabbed in the neck with a makeshift weapon.

Julian Kennelly, spokesperson for the union representing prison workers, said 311 assaults on youth justice staff were recorded in a 120-day period earlier this year.

“The problem with youth justice is we’ve got a mix of remand and sentenced because we’ve just got so many young people in the two facilities we’ve got available,” he explained on 3AW.

“We need something else and we need something in the interim while we wait for (new high security facility) Cherry Creek.”

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