Prison empty, unused, 6 months after completion

A prison at Little River, which was $100m over budget when construction was completed last year, is still empty.

Insiders have told The Herald Sun the centre has been unable to find corrections officers willing to work there.

Despite not being operational, maintenance and security staff are currently employed to monitor the site.

The opposition’s youth justice spokesman, Brad Battin, told the Sun that urgent reform was needed to deal with the state’s youngest offenders.

“Victoria’s youth justice system is broken and fails to achieve its basic objectives,” he said. “More of the same will not work.

“Every extra dollar of taxpayers’ money that is spent on more and bigger detention centres is one less to invest in evidence-based programs that actually help get young people on the right path.”

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