Violent, out of control and addicted to crystal methamphetamine, Josh,16, has been in and out of youth detention since he was 15.

“I know this will end badly, and as his mum, I feel so helpless,” she says.

Josh has spent time in Malmsbury Youth Detention Centre, Parkville Youth Justice Centre and the Ascot Vale Secure Welfare centre. But each time he is released, he comes out more hardened and detached.

Kate fears Josh will end up irreparably damaged and a lifelong criminal unless there is some kind of intervention.

She is calling for increased funding for educational, rehabilitation and mental health programs for high risk youth in custody and mandatory attendance as part of sentencing. 

She says a systematic failure of the youth justice system is turning offending teenagers into hardened, life-long criminals.

“It’s like I can see him disappearing in front of my eyes,” Kate says. “When he has just been released from custody, he cries and cries.

“All he wants to do is go back into jail. They get fed three meals a day. He is in a routine. His mates are in there. 

They get to do what they like, but, when they get released, they don’t know how to be or what to do in the real world.”

Earlier this month, The Courier reported poor top-tier management, lack of staff, lock-down regimes and cuts to education and rehabilitation services have created a pressure-cooker atmosphere that makes riots in Victoria's youth detention centres inevitable.

Meanwhile, a toxic culture of fear and intimidation has disempowered the youth justice workforce, said the insider, who spoke to The Courier on the condition of anonymity.

The source says cuts by the Department of Health and Human Services to educational and rehabilitation services had seen youth become disengaged and bored while in custody.

TAFE programs had been scrapped by the DHHS and outsourced to less effective models, they added.

In a recent terrifying incident, police surrounded their house when Josh threatened to kill Kate. 

Wielding a knife, he held her hostage for hours as she cowered in her bedroom.  

“That was the last time the police took him away and told him he couldn’t live at home anymore.”

Now in the care of the Department of Human Services, Josh has been deemed too violent to live with other young people.

He lives a unit on his own in Ballarat with three support workers who work around the clock.

“The fact is though, he’s never there,” Kate says. 

“He threatens to kill his workers with knives. They can’t deal with him so they quit. He’s back on the streets doing ice and back with the drug dealers.

“He constantly carries a knife around. I'm scared of my own son. I worry one day he will kill somebody and it breaks my heart.These kids have no support, they have no real home.

They just keep taking drugs then committing crimes because they have no money to buy drugs, it’s a vicious cycle.”

There were signs early on Josh wasn’t like other children.

“When he was toddler he’d have episodes where he would just flip out and I struggled to do things like get him strapped into his car seat because he was so violent,” Kate says. “It could go on for hours.”

When he was in primary school, he punched another boy so hard he knocked him unconsciousness.

When he was about 12, he punched a brick wall and broke his hand. 

He’s smashed the windscreen of Kate’s car, broken pieces of furniture, doors and windows in fits of rage.  

His case has baffled medical experts.

Josh has been diagnosed with autism, Asperger syndrome, psychosis and oppositional defiant disorder a childhood behavioural disorder, characterised by constant disobedience and hostility.

“We’ve been to see almost every psychologist, psychiatrist and paediatrician in Ballarat,” she says.

“They would all say to me “he’s got a bit of everything,” which makes it really hard to put him on medication or treat him so it continues to spiral.”

His arms are riddled with scars where he has cut himself. He has made attempts to end his own life and been repeatedly hospitalised. 

“He tells me he can’t deal with what goes on his head,” she says.

“He has multiple personalities so you have this beautiful child, with the biggest heart, then you have the other side which is violent and uncontrollable. It could be the tiniest thing that will tick him off.”

Josh has been enrolled in numerous mainstream schools in Ballarat.

He rarely lasts longer than a week before he is expelled for violent behaviour.

He has committed violent crimes sprees from his early teens.

He once robbed a man by holding a knife to his throat at a service station.

During ice-fuelled rampages, he has robbed supermarkets and houses across Ballarat. 

“The justice system just keeps putting him in four walls and releasing him back into society without doing anything to stop him from offending again or addressing the causes of his offending,” Kate says.

“They’re put in custody with kids that are worse than them so they learn more tricks.”

She says each time Josh is incarcerated he is assessed by a specialist, but no mental health programs are put in place for him.

“He’s put in the too hard basket,” she says.

“If he plays up, he gets put in solidarity confinement not dealt with by specialists. There is nothing in there to rehabilitate him.” 

Kate is pushing for the roll-out of camps for disengaged youth mirroring similar initiatives in Western Australia.

Under the scheme, young offenders are sent away on camps with specialists including youth workers, psychiatrists and psychologists.       

The aim of the program is to medically assess, rehabilitate and build the self-esteem of participants and then connect them to a pathway into employment and education opportunities.

“I truly believe these kids aren’t lost causes, they just need the right support to get their lives together,” she said.

“At the moment, there is nowhere for them to go.”

But she said the cost of these programs was profound, with some camps costing up to $120,000.

YMCA Bridge Project senior case manager Luke Moodie said the vast majority of young people in the youth justice system were dealing with multiple forms of disadvantage.

He has dedicated his life to turning the lives of troubled youth around.

"There needs to be a holistic approach," he said.

"Crime impacts so many people across the community from families of offenders to innocent bystanders so everybody has got to involved in the solution.”

The Bridge Project provides mentoring, training and employment opportunities for young people who have been in custody in partnership with Corrections Victoria. 

The most effective way to reduce reoffending, is to connect young people with family, community and education, Mr Moodie said.

But access to specialised services, including drug rehabilitation, was also critical.   

“A big thing which compounds it all is many of them are self medicating or using drugs because they see it as being the only way out of their pain,” he said.

“But with positive role models, empowerment through education and employment opportunities the cycle can be broken.”

*Kate and Josh are not their real names.The Courier has chosen not to identify them for legal reasons.

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