Minister for youth justice Jihad Dib visited Reiby youth justice centre in Airds on Sunday morning to announce work has commenced on major upgrades to youth justice centres across NSW.
He said the upgrades are part of the Minns Labor Government delivery of tightened security and additional incident response teams to help make the facilities safer and prevent banned items.
Additional CCTV cameras and new X-ray body scanners have been installed at the six NSW youth justice centres across the state, with security training for staff increased.
Seventy more officers have joined the incident response teams, which were previously only deployed at two centres.
“Young people who receive a custodial sentence and enter a youth justice facility as a consequence of their actions need an environment that is both safer and more secure for themselves and for staff,’’ Mr Dib said.
“Most of the young people in detention at any given time are there on remand, meaning overall numbers fluctuate day to day.
“These new incident response teams and enhanced security mean we are better prepared to quickly de-escalate and respond to incidents and prevent contraband from entering facilities,’’ he said.
During the past 12 months, staff in youth justice centres — including Reiby – reported more than 230 incidents where contraband items were detected and removed to keep young people safe, including homemade knives, mobile phones, lighters, vapes and cigarettes (pictured below).
Refurbishments are also under way at the Reiby youth justice centre.
“These refurbishments and building works also support youth justice officers and specialist resources to work with young people who have offended and, through targeted support, training programs and mentoring, help them find better futures,’’ Mr Dib said.
“We are giving young people a chance to access the many programs that can help them break the cycle of offending, build new lives and keep them out of the criminal justice system.”