The Victorian Greens are horrified by the treatment of a child transferred into an adult maximum-security prison revealed in a damning new Victorian Ombudsman report today, and say the findings are an indictment on the Labor Government and the cruel pathway they've chosen with putting children through the adult courts and prison system.
The report details how a 16-year-old child transferred from youth justice to Melbourne Assessment Prison was confined to his cell for an average of more than 22 hours a day for six weeks, routinely handcuffed when outside his cell and largely cut off from meaningful human contact.
The child told the Ombudsman the experience left him with "dark, dark thoughts", including thoughts of self-harm and suicide, and that he still thought about the experience "pretty much every day".
The Ombudsman found the Department failed to properly consider the child's human rights before applying for his transfer and that its assessment focused heavily on justifying the transfer through his behaviour rather than meaningfully considering what adult prison would do to him.
The report reiterates the long-standing position of the Ombudsman that there are 'no circumstances that justify the placement of a child in the adult prison system'.
The Victorian Greens say that the report is an indictment on the Victorian Labor Government who have engaged in this relentless race-to-the-bottom with the Liberals over who can sound the toughest while putting children in serious harm and doing absolutely nothing to reduce crime.
Quotes attributable the Victorian Greens justice spokesperson, Katherine Copsey:
"No child should be locked alone in a maximum-security adult prison for more than 22 hours a day until they are having thoughts of suicide and self-harm. That is torture.
"This report is horrifying and an indictment of the Labor Government who ignored the evidence and engaged in this relentless race-to-the-bottom with the Liberals, bragging about putting children through the adult system and life sentences.
"Meaningful relationships, education, treatment, exercise, culture and connection - this is how you support a child to make better choices and thrive. Stripping them of these things doesn't rehabilitate them, it's traumatising. Dragging children into the adult system is exactly what causes cycles of reoffending."
