Labor needs to fix the dangerous overcrowding of Queensland prisons

Labor needs to stop blaming its opponents and build new jails to fix the current dangerous overcrowding in Queensland prisons, writes The Editor.

THE brutal bashing of the Queensland corrections officer featured in The Courier-Mail yesterday can be laid squarely at the feet of the Palaszczuk Government.

This may, at first blush, seem a rather harsh deduction. After all, working in a prison is an inherently risky trade.

And it was a violent offender, not the Government, who let loose on the officer, leaving him with multiple injuries, including fractures to his nose, cheek, eye socket and jaw.

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However, from the time it assumed office in 2015, Queensland’s Labor administration has been acutely aware of the overcrowding problem in the state’s prisons. Since then, several reports have warned that this predicament would lead to greater outbreaks of violence in the state’s prisons, which would endanger the safety of officers.

Time and again, the Government has attempted to play the blame game and obfuscate on this issue.

It is true that Labor inherited the overcrowding problem from its LNP predecessors, who oversaw a large increase in the prison population, but had no real long-term plan to address overcrowding. However, blaming the Newman government for jailing too many criminals was never the most savvy of political retorts.

And given the four-year anniversary of the LNP’s vanquishing approaches, it is no longer credible for Labor to blame anyone else, given it has had ample time to plan, fund and build new correctional centres.

Prison officer Greg was coward punched and repeatedly kicked by a prisoner at Woodford jail after he was told he couldn’t have a jail cell to himself and had to share.

The Government’s response to the bashing of the officer, who The Courier-Mail has chosen to refer to only as “Greg” for safety reasons, shows the administration remains marooned in obfuscation mode while being bereft of a real solution.

A Government spokesman claimed that by 2020 Labor would have delivered up to 3000 new beds in Queensland prisons. However, this is just spin, given the bulk of these are the result of a policy to introduce bunk beds.

Very few members of the public would sympathise with the plight of prisoners having to share rooms.

However, officers have been warning for years that this stopgap approach only fuels further violence and makes their task more difficult given prisons are being operated beyond their proper capacity.

The Government also points towards an extra 700 beds at the reopened Borallon prison and plans to expand Capricornia Correctional Centre by almost 400 beds.

However, moves to reopen Borallon were well advanced before Labor took office and the additional Capricornia facilities are but a fraction of what’s needed.

Clearly, Queensland needs a significant new jail.

Treasurer Jackie Trad tasked the Queensland Productivity Commission to come up with ways to reduce imprisonment and recidivism in the face of overcrowding. Picture: AAP/Dan Peled

However, Labor’s magic pudding fiscal policy, under which it claimed it could fund infrastructure, reduce debt and keep state-owned assets, has long been exposed as folly, so the budget can ill afford this expense.

The Government continues to be forced to borrow to pay for popular infrastructure, such as roads and public transport projects.

But there is obviously very little political upside in borrowing billions of dollars more to build a prison.

Instead, the Government has deployed a number of rather perverse strategies in an effort to avoid the obvious. Since 2016, Queensland Corrective Services has been prioritising resources toward “diversion, community supervision and re-entry services” to tackle the state’s booming prison population.

And last year, Treasurer Jackie Trad tasked the Queensland Productivity Commission to come up with ways to reduce imprisonment and recidivism in the face of overcrowding.

The Government appears to have adopted the position that it is easier to be soft on crime than make the tough decisions necessary to improve the state’s fiscal fortunes.

This will be cold comfort to prison officers.

Despite the Government’s efforts and talk of extra beds, there are currently almost 2000 more prisoners in Queensland jails than there are jail cells. This has created a powder keg of problems in prison and left officers, such as Greg, at grave risk.

Labor needs to stop blaming its opponents and finally accept the need to build new facilities to fix the overcrowding in Queensland’s prisons.

PAINE KEEPS AUSSIE SPIRIT ALIVE

TIM Paine deserves much respect for the way he has gone about his job captaining the Australian cricket team through tumultuous times.

The 34-year-old Tasmanian was not even a regular for his state side when he was recalled for the 2017-18 Ashes and then handed the captaincy months later when Steve Smith and David Warner were suspended.

Captaining the Australian cricket team is an enormous honour, but can be a tough gig. Few who saw it will forget Kim Hughes’ tearful resignation at The Gabba in November 1984 after the team incurred a string of losses.

Tim Paine. Picture: Jason McCawley/Getty Images

Paine will lead his team on to the hallowed turf of the Sydney Cricket Ground today staring down the barrel of an inauspicious record.

Wilt at the SCG and they face being the first Australian side to lose a Test series on home soil to India. While behind the stumps or with bat in hand, Paine has shown that he is not just a stand-in skipper, but one prepared to stand up to the Indians.

If the rest of the Australian team can mirror Paine’s approach, they are a chance of pulling off an against-the-odds victory to remember.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Sam Weir, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details are available at couriermail.com.au/help/contact-us