Plans for Werribee’s new youth detention centre have been released.
The Cherry Creek Youth Justice Centre will include up to 300 beds for remanded and sentenced youths aged between 10 and 21, a 12-bed mental health unit and an “intensive supervision unit” that will have at least eight beds.
It will also have dedicated beds for offenders to receive specialist assessments and intensive drug and alcohol treatment.
The facility, which will be surrounded by a six-metre-high wall, will have a school run by Parkville College to allow inmates to complete their VCE. The centre will have vocational education training and dedicated hands-on horticulture and hospitality programs.
The Cherry Creek site (off Little River Road) is close to the Werribee tip and more than five kilometres from the edge of all future and current residential estates, including the existing Westleigh Gardens and Riverwalk estates.
Construction is expected to begin in August or September and the facility is expected to be operational in early 2021, with inmates likely to be transferred from Parkville over a staggered period of time.
Department of Justice and Regulation secretary Greg Wilson said the youth jail would be a much-needed and secure facility.
Copies of the facility plan are available at the Wyndham Civic Centre, 45 Princes Highway, Werribee, and will be made available online
