Step in the right direction: Prison guards celebrate safety deal after forcing a Yatala unit into lockdown
Guards have won new safety measures at Yatala Labour Prison after forcing a three-day lockdown in response to a bloody attack on a prisoner. Graphic warning.
A three-day lockdown sparked by a spate of assaults at Adelaide’s Yatala Labour Prison is expected to end on Wednesday as the government agrees to implement extra safety measures.
Yatala prison guards have forced the 30-bed rehabilitative Mirnu Unit into lockdown since Sunday’s savage attack where nine inmates ganged up against a 29-year-old fellow prisoner.
Graphic photos obtained by this masthead show the purported victim with head wounds, bloodied skin, bruising and swelling.
The prisoner is in hospital. No charges have been laid.
Another violent attack on Tuesday left a second Yatala inmate unconscious.
Prison guards demanded the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) assign a dedicated supervisor to be solely responsible for the Mirnu Unit and for it to be searched by the Emergency Response Group for weapons – makeshift weapons included – and contraband, before they would end the lockdown.
DCS agreed to implement the safety measures on Tuesday evening with the additional staff member expected to start on Wednesday.
PSA correctional officer liaison and vice-president Craig Bates said the lack of dedicated unit supervisors puts staff and inmates at risk during critical incidents.
The previous supervisor was responsible for another two separate prison units, each with about 30 beds, making them responsible for about 90 prisoners.
“There’s a very small amount of supervisor posts in the prisons, particularly in Yatala,” Mr Bates said.
“It’s a concern because if the supervisor responsible for managing that incident has got to come from another building and pass multiple interlocking barriers … it compounds the time and compounds the risk for everyone.”
Public Service Association general secretary Charlotte Watson, who represents prison guards, said forcing the department to assign a dedicated supervisor was a major win for the union and its members.
“We reached that agreement with DCS late (Tuesday evening),” Ms Watson said.
“We’re expecting the supervisor will start on (Wednesday) and once that extra staff member is there – we’ll be unlocking the unit.”
Ms Watson said this achievement was “a move in the right direction to ensure staff safety” but she vows there is still a “long way” for them to go to achieve their goals across the state’s prisons.
Ms Watson also added it was unusual for prisons to experience “such prolonged lockdowns” lasting days. She believed it “reflects the significance of the safety concerns of the prison officers”.
It comes after a second fresh violent attack caused a Yatala prisoner to lose consciousness about 11.45am on Tuesday,
The Advertiser understands the prisoner was sitting in the engineers workshop lunch room when he was punched several times.
Insiders have revealed there was “a lot of blood everywhere” following the attack.
A priority one ambulance was called but the prisoner – a 30-year-old man who suffered facial injuries – signed a waiver and remained at the Northfield prison.
A Department for Correctional Services spokeswomen said the incident involving the two prisoners had been reported to police.
It also follows a brutal attack in the Adelaide Women’s Prison last week.
On Wednesday morning, the union will begin a series of rallies for better work conditions and better pay for corrections officers – who receive the lowest pay in the country.
Ms Watson said: “Officers are risking their safety everyday for $58,000 a year and that is just unacceptable”.
