Premier promises new youth prison after escapees terrorise Victorians
Victoria's corrections department will take over the state's youth prisons after 15 youth offenders broke out of a detention centre and went on a 24-hour crime spree.
The teens went on a rampage on Wednesday night, breaking out of the Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre, stealing cars and assaulting people before being recaptured.
Authorities were criticised for their slow response, taking almost 24-hours to gain permission to release pictures of the youths through the children's court.
Premier Daniel Andrews said work had already started to get the corrections department to take over the running of the state's youth prisons from the Department of Health and Human Services.
"What this means is that those staff who have the training, the equipment and the expertise to return order and to guarantee the security of these facilities will be charged with doing just that," Mr Andrews told reporters on Friday.
"This is a big step, but it is exactly the right thing to do in the light of the completely unacceptable security breach at Malmsbury."
The 40 corrections staff will be allowed to use additional weapons to maintain order in the centres.
Mr Andrews also promised to build a new youth prison to house the violent offenders Victoria is now dealing with.
"That facility will be a significant investment. It will be many hundreds of millions of dollars, but it is absolutely necessary," he said.
All of the escaped youth offenders are back behind bars after the violent crime spree, which terrorised Victorians with carjackings, armed robberies and assaults.
The many incidents included:
A woman being dragged from her car by her hair in Elphinstone before thugs drove off with her vehicle;
An 84-year-old man carjacked in Harcourt by youths armed with a baseball bat and knife;
A family followed home from a Narre Warren shopping centre and threatened with a knife in their driveway; a home invasion in Mitcham; another carjacking in Carrum;
and knife held to the throat of a 46-year-old man in Bonbeach.
The last of the youths were recaptured by 3.30pm on Thursday as authorities scrambled to reassure the public drastic changes were afoot.
But it was not before concerned Victorians were left helpless with the news of the major breakout, and no information about the dangerous offenders was released to the public.
Police were not able to release names, descriptions and images of the final two runaways to the media until just minutes before the pair had been arrested – 24 hours after they broke out of the detention centre.
“No one can tell me whether they’re on remand or serving a sentence at this stage,” Deputy Police Commissioner Shane Patton told 3AW radio Thursday at 8am - 17 hours after the breakout.
Police lawyers were hindered by red tape trying to obtain permission to release the vital details, while the escapees were busy on a violent rampage across Victoria.
Mr Crisp called the process ”convoluted”.
“Victoria Police contacted the court registrar overnight and looked at working our way through that process,” he told the Herald Sun on Thursday.
His comments were backed by Police Association secretary Ron Iddles who argued police should be allowed the discretion to release details detainees that have escaped or absconded from correctional or DHHS facilities if it would speed up their arrest, or protect the community from harm.
“The community’s safety must always come before the rights of prisoners serving a custodial sentence irrespective of their age.
“People that commit armed robberies, assaults and carjackings to escape custody are not kids whatever their age. They are dangerous criminals that need to be arrested quickly before they can cause further harm.”
Youth Affairs Minister Jenny Mikakos told the media on Thursday afternoon steps were being taken to allow the release of names and photos of youth offenders," ahead of the
recapture.
"In terms of photos and release of photos, there are some legislative parameters around the release of photos," she said on Thursday.
"Steps are being taken, as we speak, in relation to these matters."
Promise for new supermax prison for youth offenders
Victoria's government has vowed to make "sweeping changes" to the state's youth justice system including bringing in guards from adult prisons and building a new high security unit.
News the 15 teenagers overpowered a prison guard and stole an access card to help them escape, put pressure on Premier Daniel Andrews to be tougher on youth offenders.
The Victorian Premier called an emergency crisis meeting late Thursday with ministers to try and defuse some of the pressure surrounding his government and the Youth Affairs Minister to discuss a way forward to manage youth offenders.
Andrews told 7 News “[The meeting will lead to significant changes to the way we administer youth justice in our state. Clearly that’s needed and we will get that job done.”
“The minister is doing the very best she can in a set of challenging circumstances. She has my full confidence.”
Opposition leader Matthew Guy said the system had been “in chaos” for some time and pressured Mikakos to move quickly.
“The minister has been in complete denial for months. We just can’t continue to have this go on, Victoria’s reputation is now suffering,” he said.
The promised overhaul comes in the wake of a major breakout at the Malmsbury youth detention centre on Wednesday.
Mikakos agreed “the system needed to change”.
“I am as angry and appalled at these events as is the Victorian community.
"We are seeing far more violent offenders coming into our youth justice system than has been the case in the past," she told the media Thursday afternoon.
"Victoria is going to get a fit-for-purpose, high-security youth justice system and there will be more beds in that system than we have at the moment."
The minister acknowledged the new supermax super security facility could not be built overnight, but it was coming. It would likely be built near the adult prisons in Melbourne’s west.
Corrections Victoria staff will reportedly move in to the Parkville and Malmsbury youth justice centres from Friday.
RELATED: Fifteen thugs leave trail of destruction after escape
Victims tell of their terror during 24-hour rampage
One of the victims caught up in the trail of destruction, when she and her mother were allegedly attacked by a gang of escapees while driving in Elphinstone, north of Malmsbury, Wednesday afternoon.
The car stopped at what the pair thought was a car crash, before 43-year-old Amanda was dragged from her car and viciously attacked, her daughter said.
Five boys “twice our size” got out of the car and opened the mother’s driver’s side door, demanding her mother to get out of the vehicle, Miss Lee recounted.
When she refused, the boys allegedly took the keys from the ignition, unfastened the woman’s seatbelt and dragged her out of the vehicle, she said.
“They grabbed her by the hair dragged her backwards down onto the road,” Miss Lee told 7 News.
“And they were just kicking her, hitting her, they were belting in.
“They were twice our size, these men were big. They were Caucasian … they were out to hurt, out to kill.
“She was just a mess, her face was already swelling like that’s how hard they hit her.”
The young woman said she had trouble sleeping, with Wednesday’s terror now causing her night terrors.
“I had nightmares. I kept dreaming that the car was ramming my bed — it’s just shocking,” she said.
Miss Lee pressured the Victorian government for tougher security for youth offenders.
“[The Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre] is not a prison… it’s childcare.
“Daniel Andrews should have done a lot more a long time ago… the youths are just out of control,” she said.
The horror attack was followed by another confronting attempted carjacking, where youth runaways followed a young family returning from the movies in Narre Warren, in Melbourne’s south east, to their Berwick home.
Marcus Hume told 7 News how he fended off a knife-wielding offender.
“As I was facing him, he was lunging at me still with the knife.
“He realised that my father-in-law came storming out of the house.
“I chased him down the driveway to the getaway car, which he jumped into, which was a white SUV, and I kicked the back door of the car in, and then they spend off.”
Mr Hume’s brave young daughter Kaitlyn, who was with her sister Jasmine in the back seat of the vehicle at the time, told 7 News “I was really scared but I was just trying to be calm.”
It was believed the vehicle the youths were travelling in was the same white SUV stolen from 84-year-old Herman Kylunhout earlier at Harcourt, after visiting his wife’s grave Wednesday afternoon.
“[They] opened all my doors, pushed me out of the driver’s seat and started screaming at me ‘I’m going to hurt you, I’m going to hurt you’,” Mr Kylunhout told 7 News.
The teenagers reportedly drove Mr Kylunhout’s car to Mulgrave, before eventually crashing it and fleeing on foot.
Early Thursday morning, three youth escapees allegedly stormed a Mitchem home, announcing themselves as police, and threatened a family with a baseball bat and knife.
Two terrified young children hid in a bedroom, while the thugs drive away with the family’s Mercedes.
