The Townsville Bulletin has spoken with several corrections officers who say decisions being made by management are impacting the safety of staff and prisoners.

They have outlined concerning scenarios where staff with little to no experience in high-pressure environments are thrust into supervisory positions and given tasks beyond their training.

Officers also say the specialist response team has fewer than half of its positions filled.

The Bulletin put the allegations made to Queensland Corrective Services which has denied the claims of a toxic work culture.

A toxic culture

A report into the prison in 2020 uncovered a culture of bullying, nepotism and managerial misconduct – and staff in 2022 say it has not improved.

One of the recommendations from the report was to put in permanent managers, but one staff member says this never occurred.

“Of the four line managers that are running the place, three are acting and they have been for 12 months or longer,” David* said.

“The report when it was done to reduce corruption was to appoint people to positions and then that way you are not stood over.

“If you’re not appointed and you’re acting, then they ask you to do something unsafe, for example, you’re more likely to it. If you’re appointed … you can’t really be coerced.

“There is no stability……if you pull up an operational issue, and rattle some cages about it, you are moved.”

Sources also said that some managers have been offered “sweeteners” to stay in the job, including the option to occasionally work from home.

A QCS spokeswoman said any officer who wished to progress their career was encouraged to apply for acting opportunities as supervisors or trainers through the Expressions of Interest process.

Staff told the Bulletin this could not always work with supervisors in charge of incidents at the prison when they occur.

Another staff member, Ben*, said in some cases lower level managers who did support staff were moved on if they did not fit in with the other managers’ ideas.

A third staff member, Peter*, said some positions amounted to “jobs for mates.”

David added that a number of staff had taken mental health leave after experiencing bullying from a manager.

On one occasion, a manager was heard saying “your face is offensive” to a staff member in front of other officers.

Another officer was purportedly told “you haven’t killed yourself yet” when moved to a section of the prison they did not want to work in.

Peter said legislation introduced a few years ago for first responders and corrections officers meant a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis would be accepted without question if the person said it was due to their work.

It was up to the department to later prove this was not the case, if it was questioned, or if there was evidence they already had the diagnosis

Peter said he was aware of one staff member who was diagnosed with PTSD from the job, but it was rejected and another who was forced to jump through multiple hoops to have it recognised.

“Half the jail would have depression or some form of PTSD. They (management) are not taking it seriously,” Peter said.

In more than one instance, it is understood officers at Stuart have tried to commit suicide, or have threatened to take their own life in response to issues at work.

David said the officers at Stuart just want the findings from the report into the prison to be adhered to.

At the time, all 30 recommendations made were accepted by then Queensland Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Martin.

“Nothing has happened,” David said.

Sources have also said that staff who have had serious conflict with each other are often put back on the same roster rotation, forcing supervisors to find ways to keep the officers concerned separate.

A meeting is understood to have been held at the jail earlier this week, with staff raising issues about safety. While some issues were addressed, the response was described to the Bulletin as “lip service”.

A QCS spokeswoman told the Bulletin all recommendations from the cultural review had been implemented.

“The health and safety of all QCS staff and their families is of the highest importance,” she said.

“QCS provides all staff, and their immediate household family members, with access to free and confidential counselling services, and officers are supported by a range of formal and informal services.”

Security breakdown

A broken gate at the entry to the jail is making it easier to smuggle contraband into the prison, a source has said.

Peter said the gate had been broken for about 12 months, with management telling staff it was an issue across the state.

He said it was easy to come in, immediately dump something, be scanned by an officer with a metal detection wand, and then retrieve the items.

“They have not even attempted to fix that issue,” Peter said.

Another officer, John, likened it to airport security.

“Imagine going to catch a domestic aeroplane and the barrier you walk through, imagine that not working,” he said.

“It is a pretty significant entry point to get on a plane. If you imagine that barrier not in place and someone just having a wand, like a little metal detector.”

Peter said there was a significant amount of prison and security equipment at the front door that could be easily accessed.

He said the government and commissioners should step in to ensure it was fixed.

QCS did not respond to any questions put to them about the security concerns raised.

Severe understaffing

Officers say the prison is also suffering from severe staffing shortages, with the centre understood to be spending $8-10,000 a day more than their budget on overtime pay.

It is understood the residential units are at 167 per cent capacity, with only 13 officers and one supervisor working night shift in the whole jail. Two of those officers are in the safety unit.

In the secure unit, the cells are designed for one person only, but according to sources there is more than one prisoner in each cell.

“There is 90 in the unit and there are 12 seats,” David said.

The secure unit is built for 52 inmates.

Officers have to stagger when prisoners are let out of their cells because “we would never get them back in.”

Ben said the corrections emergency response team, which should be made up of 26 officers that respond to the most dangerous incidents in the prison, only has eight officers.

The emergency response team receive additional training in how to deal with volatile and dangerous situations in the prison.

“Some days, you only have two or three (CERT officers) on the men’s side, that is depending on the roster,” Ben said.

Staff say to fulfil the required roster for the CERT team, all eight officers would have to be working overtime, every day, and not get a single day off.

Peter said there would be a need for the CERT team every day.

“From about 2014-2015 it was a rare occurrence, you might have an officer assaulted every two years … then the ice epidemic hit and it started getting more and more,” he said.

“You’re almost a the point where you’ve got daily assaults on staff. It has increased exponentially, but there has been nothing put in place.

“We’re still doing the same thing we did back then.”

On Monday, November 21, an officer was taken to hospital after an incident in the secure unit at the prison.

The prison officer was allegedly struck multiple times in the face.

Peter said the prison was losing more staff than it could recruit each year.

He believes the things “pushing people out” was their mental health and lack of support.

Ben added that people were being thrust into supervisor positions despite not having the training or experience to take them on.

He said people who had spent most of their career in quieter parts of the prison were being put into senior positions in the secure unit.

“They don’t want to have that difficult conversation with people who don’t have the experience, or have actively avoided the busiest most risky area to work in,” Ben said.

“Senior management don’t want to have the conversation with people and explain that to them.

“Probably if you want to supervise, you would go to (the secure unit) and work there for 12 months as an officer. You can’t expect people to work under if you if have never done the job they’re doing.”

QCS rejected claims the prison was understaffed.

“Townsville Correctional Complex is fully staffed for the prison capacity, including with adequate specialist staff trained to respond to critical incidents,” the spokeswoman said.

“QCS facilities have the ability to adjust capacity to meet demand.”

Training shortfall

Staff are being suspended for not dealing with incidents correctly, despite no training in emergency response being completed, sources say.

David said when an incident occurs, whoever the supervisor on the day was, would be lumped with the blame, but no measures would be put in place to ensure the same response doesn’t occur again.

He said there were similar issues when staff were taking prisoners outside the centre.

“When you’ve got a prisoner outside the secure centre, that is when we are at most risk,” David said.

He said there was an officer under investigation for an incident involving a prisoner in hospital who managed to escape into the roof cavity, but fell onto another patient through the ceiling.

David said since that incident, which occurred in July, there had been no changes to training or qualification level for staff on prisoner transport.

“You could finish your course today and you could be external with a prison in the ceiling tomorrow,” he said.

David said it was recognised who the “competent” officers were, but staffing pressure and the volume of medical or otherwise escorts, was making it difficult to ensure the right staff were taking prisoners from the centre.

Ben said the external escorts used to be part of the CERT team roster but that was no longer the case. He said at a minimum, a CERT officer and a team leader would do the escorts in the past.

Peter added there should be additional training given to new staff, suggesting they “shadow” more experienced officers for a number of months after they leave the academy.

A similar suggestion was put forward in the 2020 review into the prison, however it is understood this has not occurred.

Ben said if new officers had not come from a background where they were “used to violence” they sometimes struggled in the more dangerous parts of the prison.

The spokeswoman said QCS expects the highest standards from all its staff at all times, and as such, QCS has a wide range of education, training, policies and procedures in place to ensure all QCS staff are aware of these expectations.

“QCS has well-established, well-known internal and external channels through which concerns can be raised and addressed in a timely and meaningful manne,” she said.

*Name changed to protect their identity.

caitlan.charles@news.com.au