The Ashley Detention Centre, just south of Deloraine is certainly cold, run-down, full of petty deprivation.

Like only having a single wood heater to heat the entire cavernous main dormitory which was built in the 1920s and has sky-high ceilings and gaping corridors.

Yesterday, long after winter, there was a chill in the rooms with their small wooden beds and thin bed covers. The carpet is old, the cupboards without doors, the rooms austere.

Health and Human Services Minister Judy Jackson is so appalled by the conditions at Ashley that she wants the place bulldozed.

She says the cells that serious offenders are locked into every night are ``like something out of last century''.

There are no fences at Ashley but there is a secure unit for the most serious offenders.

Offenders charged with serious offences such as rape and murder are kept in the secure unit. So are young people whose behaviour becomes uncontrollable.

A yard and vegetable garden tended by the serious offenders are separated from the main grounds by brick walls and rolls of barbed wire. There are classrooms on the site for the young people to attend school. A flat is also available for families to visit.

Girls and younger children are housed away from ``the old dorm'' in separate facilities. But everyone mixes on the grounds and at school.

Yesterday a group of boys was locked into a room to play ping-pong. Another helped a staff member to collect firewood and they looked easy with each other, like they could enjoy a joke together.

The place is not without humanity.