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Although Victorian child welfare legislation had technically drawn distinctions between children who were placed under state control because their parents were not equipped to retain guardianship and children who had committed crimes, children from the two categories were often placed side by side in institutions. Therefore, in practice, reformatories were used to control both children who had custodial sentences because of criminal convictions and children who had technically been charged as 'neglected' but who were considered to require firmer discipline than could be provided in other types of 'care'.
For almost a century, beginning in 1864, there were both state-run and privately-run reformatory institutions in Victoria. Initially, these were Catholic reformatories provided as an alternative to the state institutions because the church was concerned that Catholic children should have strong Catholic religious instruction. Around the end of the nineteenth century other voluntary religious organisations also became involved in running this type of institution. In the 1950s Reformatories were renamed Youth Training Centres, and the government took increased responsibility for running Youth Training Centres, rather than funding voluntary organisations to run them. In 1987 the government decided to entirely cease funding non-government bodies to run Youth Training Centres.
Commencing in the 1960s, and then accelerating through the 1970s and 1980s, deinstitutionalisation of Victorian child welfare promoted foster care, family group homes, and a range of other models of alternatives to large institutions. As a consequence, an increasing proportion of the children and young people in Youth Training Centres were serving custodial sentences for convictions, though a small number of children considered to be highly at risk of offending and therefore unsuitable for other types of 'care' were still placed there. In the 1990s these institutions were renamed Juvenile Justice Centres. By this time they were almost exclusively used for convicted or otherwise remanded young people over the age of 15. The name change in 2005 to Youth Justice Centres reflected little change in purpose. Victoria's Youth Training Centres were effectively a youth arm of the criminal justice system, however a 30 bed facility for young men aged 10 to 14 years on remand or sentence by the Children's Court to a Youth Residential Order remained at the Melbourne Youth Residential Centre.
