Keeping children in adult Australian prison against the law, judge says

Human rights advocates say compensation could be paid to the children housed in an adult jail in Victoria, Australia, after a judge declared the practice unlawful.

The state’s highest court ruled on Thursday that keeping children in Victoria’s maximum security adult Barwon Prison was against the law.

Human rights advocates who launched the latest challenge to the government’s decision to house youths at the jail’s Grevillea unit are now flagging possible compensation for 15 youths, some of whom have been detained there for more than five months.

In a 225-page judgment, Supreme Court Justice John Dixon said the government’s decision to establish a youth justice wing at the adult prison was unlawful and declared that detaining youths there was prohibited.

He also found the limitations placed on the human rights of child inmates were not justified.

It is not clear yet whether the government will appeal what has been the third challenge to its decision to keep children at the adult jail.

The Human Rights Law Centre launched the latest legal challenge in April after the Victorian government reclassified an area of Barwon prison as a youth facility.

Teens were transferred from the trashed Parkville and Malmsbury youth justice centres in late 2016.

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