A troubled youth detention centre will become a minimum-security adult prison under a government plan, despite warnings from a child sexual abuse inquiry such a move could be retraumatising.
Former detainees gave evidence about horrific physical and sexual abuse at Tasmania's Youth Detention Centre at an inquiry that concluded in 2021.
The inquiry recommended the state government close the centre, which is about 50km west of Launceston, as soon as possible.
It is slated to shut in 2028, once a replacement therapeutic youth justice facility is constructed, despite an original government pledge for it to close by the end of 2024.
The government says conditions at the centre are now safer and improvements, such as more CCTV cameras, have been made.
On Tuesday, it announced its intention to repurpose the centre into a minimum-security adult prison and agriculture-based prisoner rehab and training facility.
It is expected to accommodate about 40 minimum-security prisoners.
"This decision builds on our government's ongoing commitment to greater rehabilitation opportunities for offenders," Minister for Justice, Corrections and Rehabilitation Guy Barnett said.
"Establishing a low-security farm prison will support rural training and employment initiatives serving as an important pathway for offender reintegration."
The community will be consulted on the plan, with the centre's transition proposed to occur after the new youth justice facility is built.
The inquiry's final report expressed concerns about the plan to turn the centre into an adult correctional facility.
"Many children and young people detained at Ashley Youth Detention Centre go on to serve a term of imprisonment in an adult prison," it said.
"We are therefore concerned that victim-survivors of child sexual abuse ... may, as adults, be sent to an adult prison located on the site where that abuse occurred.
"This is likely to be retraumatising."
The inquiry recommended the state government ensure no one who has previously been detained at the centre be housed at an adult facility on the same site unless they wish to.
The government said it would accept all the recommendations in the inquiry.
In 2024, a $75 million court settlement was approved for 129 former detainees in relation to abuse at the centre from 1960 to 2023.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
