There is an "obvious risk" children might assault and even rape one another if they were removed from an adult prison and returned to shared custodial cells at Parkville Youth Justice Centre, Children's Minister Jenny Mikakos has said.
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Ms Mikakos made the claim during a New Year's Day social media spat with lawyer Ruth Barson.
Ms Barson is the Human Rights Law Centre's director of legal advocacy and one of the lawyers behind three recent legal challenges against the government.
The Court of Appeal last week upheld a Victorian Supreme Court ruling that Ms Mikakos had unlawfully failed to consider the inmates' legal rights when she declared Barwon Prison's secure Grevillea unit a youth justice and remand centre in November.
In response to its latest court loss, the government re-gazetted Grevillea as a youth justice and remand centre, saying it had considered and addressed the issues raised by the courts, including education and health facilities.
Fairfax understands lawyers are planning yet another legal challenge to the re-gazetting of the facility.
The minister's frustration with the human rights lawyers boiled over on Sunday after Ms Barson shared on Twitter a link to a Fairfax opinion piece she and another lawyer had written, in which they described the government's youth justice crisis as being one of "a myopic outlook and a merciless attitude".
Ms Mikakos accused Ms Barson of twisting the truth, and wrote: "My Dept said in sworn evidence they would be in shared cells & rooms with no toilet [if they were returned to Parkville]".
Then, she went further. "you're really advocating for offenders charged with violent crimes & histories of violence in detention to share cells ... and when they assaulted & raped each other, what then Ruth? You don't care about the obvious risks".
Ms Barson replied: "inflicting actual harm on children to prevent hypothetical harm is unjustifiable. So is jailing children in unlawful facility".
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said vulnerable or violent young people sharing cells made it difficult for authorities to supervise and separate them.
"This has the potential to lead to serious incidents including assault and sexual assault," he said.
"Double-bunking also presents risks to the safety of staff at these facilities."
There are a number of double rooms at both the Parkville and Malmsbury youth justice centres. It's understood some children have also shared cells at Barwon.
Teenagers held at Barwon Prison are among dozens transferred from three youth detention centres in November, after riots at Parkville youth justice precinct destroyed some 60 beds.
In November, the government settled on the eve of another Supreme Court case, agreeing to remove all Aboriginal children it had transferred to Barwon prison.
In December it lost a separate Supreme Court challenge against children being held at Barwon, and appealed to the Court of Appeal, Victoria's highest court.
Despite the Court of Appeal also ordering the government to remove children from Barwon, Ms Mikakos announced the following day she had re-gazetted the facility, to take the court's concerns into account.
She said the government would not be moving the detainees.
The children's lawyers say teenage detainees have been held in solitary confinement for extended periods, threatened with tear gas and given inadequate schooling.
- with Jane Lee
