BackA multi-disciplinary, multi-agency inspection team led by the Victorian Ombudsman will inspect Port Phillip Prison, Malmsbury Youth Justice Precinct and Secure Welfare Services, looking at practices related to ‘solitary confinement’ on children and young people.
Ombudsman Deborah Glass said the inspections would occur over March and April 2019 and would be carried out in line with the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT).
Port Phillip Prison is Victoria’s largest maximum-security prison with a dedicated youth unit, while the Malmsbury Youth Justice Precinct is a centre for males aged 15-20 and Secure Welfare Services are facilities for children and young people under child protection orders who are at substantial and immediate risk of harm.
In an Australian first, Ms Glass has established an advisory group comprised of leading oversight bodies and civil society organisations to assist her investigation. Members of the advisory group will be providing staff and other expertise to the inspection team, including expertise in dealing with childhood trauma and mental health.
Ms Glass said the inspection team would be joined by relevant experts, including Angus Mulready-Jones, the lead inspector for facilities detaining children and young people from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, the coordinating body for National Preventative Mechanisms under OPCAT in the UK.
“Preventive inspections carried out under the OPCAT model seek to identify risks that may lead to ill-treatment of detained people,” Ms Glass said.
Source: Victorian Ombudsman, Australia
