Victoria is condemning children as young as 10 to a lifetime of offending by locking them up in "car park-spaced boxes" unless it raises the age of criminality, a coalition of welfare and legal groups says.
With a single mattress on the floor and tape outlining the size of a youth detention cell on the steps of state parliament, the groups on Thursday called for the government to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years.
The action is spurred by the damning Northern Territory royal commission into child detention, which recommended raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 12.
"By putting our children into these car park-spaced boxes, we're condemning them to a life of re-offending," Wayne Muir from Victorian Aboriginal Legal Services told reporters.
Mr Muir said a child under 16 was still developing cognitively, which makes them open to influence and they could not as easily discern right from wrong, however it also means they have a better chance of turning their life around.
Federation of Community Legal Centres' Melanie Poole said it was "unconscionable" that across Australia, 10-year-olds could be locked up.
"Throwing 10-year-old children in prison means that they're up to at least three times more likely to end up in the quicksand of the adult justice system," she told reporters.
"So this isn't benefiting anyone."
The groups want more investment in diversion and support programs, to stop children falling in to criminal behaviour.
Sixty groups all up signed an open letter to Premier Daniel Andrews demanding the changes.
But Children and Youth Affairs Minister Jenny Mikakos said the government has "no plans" on changing the age of criminality.
The youngest person currently in Victoria's youth detention is aged 13, she added.
"If we ignore issues of criminal behaviour in children we will ensure that their destiny is to be to go on and conduct further offences," she told reporters.
"By making sure the criminal justice system does respond to younger people we can ensure they will be linked in with the appropriate services."
The state's overburdened youth justice system has been plagued by riots and the government is pouring money into the system to try and reform it.
