Turana Youth Training Centre

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Turana Youth Training Centre

Location:	Parkville, Victoria
Status:	Operational
Security class:	?
Capacity:	?
Managed by:	?

Turana Youth Training Centre, now known as the Melbourne Juvenile Justice Centre, is a youth corrections facility located in Parkville, Victoria, Australia. The facility is designed to accommodate 15 to 20-year-old males through four units and a separate multi-purpose unit that houses remand prisoners. Prisoners have access to a variety of programs with units having plasma TVs, dvds, day and weekend leaves. Prisoners also have TVs in their rooms.

Until the mid-1950s, Turana (then the Children's Welfare Department Receiving Depot for Girls and Boys ) "processed" all children from infancy to 18 coming into the care of the State Governemnt, whether offenders or under the then equivalent of care and protection orders. Children were sent from Turana to various institutions (government and non-government) throughout the state. Children who were demeed "difficult" to handle or who required psychiatric treatment or were due for court appearances in Melbourne were returned to Turana.

The opening of Winlaton Youth Training Centre (aka Winlaton Juvenile School and Nunawading Residential Facility) in 1956 meant that young women aged 14-18 were moved out of Turana. The opening in 1960 of Pirra Children's Home [[{aka Pirra Girls' Home)]] and Allambie Reception Centre meant that young children under the care of the Family Welfare Division of the Social Welfare Department, were also moved out of Turana which could then accommodate young males only.

The name "Turana" was chosen in the late 1950s by the wife of Arthur Rylah, then Chief Secretary of Victoria. The word was believed to be Koori for "Rainbow".