Detained at luxury prices

IT costs more to house a child in the Ashley Youth Detention Centre for a night than it does to stay in a luxury suite at the Saffire Freycinet resort.

Parliamentary Budget Estimates hearings have been told the cost of keeping a child in the 51-bed centre was most recently estimated to be $2570 a day. Staying in a luxury suite at the Saffire Freycinet resort costs $2100 a night.

The hearing was told there are 10 children detained at Ashley and Human Services Minister Roger Jaensch said there was always going to be a high cost of operating the Deloraine centre.

IT costs almost a million dollars a year to house a child in the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.

Budget Estimates hearings have been told the cost of keeping a child in the 51-bed centre, near Deloraine, was most recently estimated to be $2570 per day, or $938,000 a year.

By contrast, a stay in a luxury suite at the Saffire Freycinet resort costs $2100 a night — or about $760,000 a year.

The cost of keeping a child in Ashley was previously as high as $3562 per day, or $1.3 million dollars a year. The average stay is 104 days.

Keeping a prisoner in adult detention costs $324 per day — around $118,000 per prisoner a year.

There are presently 10 children detained at Ashley.

Human Services Minister Roger Jaensch told the committee that given the number of residents and the staffing levels there was always going to be a very high cost of operating the facility.

The committee heard that 53.8 per cent of young offenders released from Ashley are back in detention within 12 months. Mr Jaensch said it was not known how many of the children detained at Ashley went on to end up in adult prison.

The Government is spending $7.2 million upgrading facilities at Ashley.