Investigation launched after prisoner climbed into Yatala Labour Prison roof while waiting to be transferred to court
Authorities have launched an investigation into how a prisoner managed to climb into the roof space at Yatala as he was waiting on his own in a video link room.
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The Corrections Department has launched an investigation into how a Yatala Labour Prison inmate climbed into the roof space of a room within the jail while waiting to be transferred to court via video link.
At around 9am on Wednesday morning, a prisoner attending court through an audio visual link from the prison entered the roof cavity of a secure video link room while he was unattended. An incident command response was activated and police were alerted of the incident. The Department's Emergency Response Group were brought in and the man was removed from the roof.
An investigation into the incident is now underway.
Department chief executive officer David Brown this morning told ABC Radio Adelaide the prisoner had been appearing before the Supreme Court via video link from a cell in the prison when the incident occurred.
“The area is under constant supervision. He was secured in the cell while he appeared before the court,” he said.
“My advice is he then started to act out, causing damage to property in the booth and in doing so also climbed up through a vent into the roof space.”
Mr Brown said the prisoner remained within the secure perimeter of the jail at all times.
“As he found out when he got up there, there was nowhere to go,” he said.
A previous breach in prison security at the site was in 2011, where serial armed robber Anthony John Smith, and violent criminal Jamie Lee Milton staged a roof protest.
At the height of the protest the pair were being cheered and whooped by several other prisoners. Milton was found with a razor blade hidden in his clothing when he was captured by Yatala’s riot response officers.