MARK COLVIN: The Victorian Government is denying that there’s a problem putting juvenile offenders in care homes with vulnerable wards of the state.
A former Department of Human Services whistleblower has told the ABC that he’s intercepted numerous sexual assault attempts, and physical assaults, because the housing mix is volatile.
But the Community Services and Disability Services Minister, Mary Wooldridge, says cases are looked at individually to ensure that wards of the state are housed harmoniously.
Rachael Brown reports.
RACHEL BROWN: A former DHS worker, who wants only to be known as Steve, says he quit the service because he was tired of dangerous incompetence.
He says he’s worried juvenile offenders transitioning through child protection and the criminal justice system, are sometimes housed with vulnerable and disabled wards of the state.
STEVE: A common analogy I like to make is that if you are a Shepherd and you look after sheep, and then all of a sudden your boss comes along and says that ‘we want to throw some wolves in there, and you’ve got treat them equally and look after them the same way.’
RACHEL BROWN: Steve told the ABC he’s intercepted attempted sexual assaults, physical assaults, and says some juvenile offenders are soliciting for prostitution and using vulnerable children’s money to buy drugs and alcohol.
The Minister for Disability Services and Community Services, Mary Wooldridge, admits a housing mix sometimes happens, but she says child protection workers study the juveniles’ case files to ensure they’re compatible.
MARY WOOLDRIDGE: If the mix is not right we won’t put a young person into that mix. We’ll take them somewhere else.
RACHEL BROWN: Minister Wooldridge says these aren’t offenders who should be in juvenile detention centres.
MARY WOOLDRIDGE: We are not accommodating, within out of home care, young people who are otherwise should be in parts of the youth justice system. If they’re having interaction with the youth justice system it may be on a community corrections order. It may be other interactions that they’re having.
RACHEL BROWN: Minister Wooldridge says the growing population is causing a strain on the system. There are now 7,000 children in out of home care each night.
But she’s confident the system is being adequately scrutinised.
MARY WOOLDRIDGE: So last year, there were 550 reports of assault. And that might be young person on young person, staff on young person, or young person on staff. So we’re publishing the data.
RACHEL BROWN: PM contacted youth justice groups like White Lion, Youth Law, and Youth Connect, which say they’re confident assaults arising from bad placements aren’t systemic.
But Caroline Worth from Centres Against Sexual Assault says there’s no question it happens.
CAROLINE WORTH: Often it’s due to the pressure of time, or there are no other placements. You can call them juvenile offenders, but in reality they’re often victims themselves; they have difficulties of their own, they have Aspberger’s or they’ve got an intellectual disability, or they come from a very violent background and some of the behaviour they’re presenting with, which might be sexually abusive behaviour and predatory.
RACHEL BROWN: And what are some of the stories that you’ve heard in the past about where this mix becomes volatile, and vulnerable children are taken advantage of?
CAROLINE WORTH: Look, sometimes you can put an older boy into a place, you know, he’s 14 or 15, and he’s been engaging in sexually abusive behaviour and hasn’t had any treatment, and you put him into the mix of kids who are there who have already been abused, which means that they don’t react quite as violently as you might expect to very bad treatment, because it’s what they’ve become used to. You know, that is not a good mix.
MARK COLVIN: Rachel Brown was the reporter there.
Read the full transcript (off-site)Listen to MP3 (off-site)- Topics:
- Child protection and relinquishment, Discrimination, Housing
- Author:
- Rachael Brown
- Source:
- ABC Radio PM
- Date published:
- Thu 5th Dec, 2013