Watch house prisoners caught up in solitary quarantine in jail

More than 30 people are locked in solitary confinement in Queensland jails after a Covid breakout at a Brisbane watch house.

More than 30 people are locked in solitary confinement in Queensland jails after a Covid breakout at a Brisbane watch house.

It is understood an infected cleaner at the Roma St watch house forced the draconian lockdown.

Instead of hotel quarantine, the 32 “prisoners” will be behind bars although some were just being held temporarily on minor matters.

The watch house was shut for a deep cleanse but the 32 people were dispersed to four prisons across the southeast before the outbreak was detected.

32 people who were in the Brisbane Watch House last week are now in quarantine in solitary confinement.

Australia’s leading advocate for criminalised women and children Sisters Inside chief executive Debbie Kilroy said more needed to be done to protect prisoners from Covid.

Ms Kilroy, who is still suffering the after-effects of Covid, said prisoners needed extra protection as the virus was easily spread in closed environments.

“These people are sitting ducks – many prisoners have poor health and have not been vaccinated,” she said.

“The low number of prisoners and prison staff getting vaccinated is of concern and so is the slow rollout in the prison system.

“Staff are coming in and out of the centres all the time and it is impossible to socially distance as prisoners are in contact with officers and health workers all the time.”

“We can’t get any information about what’s happened to these 32 other than we know they have been tested and are now in solitary confinement.

“It’s not only the Corrective Services staff – the police officers, about 60, were sent home for quarantining on Monday and most of them had been working at the State of Origin – but nobody has mentioned that.”

Sisters Inside CEO Debbie Kilroy.

A spokeswoman for Corrective Services said officers had been working closely with police to identify all staff and prisoners at the watch house on Thursday last week who were exposed as a result of the infected cleaner.

“They have all been isolated and tested and all tests have come back negative,” she said.

“All together, it was around about 50 of our officers in total who escorted the prisoners and received them into the prisons.

“They were all told to isolate and get tested and they have all done that and the prisoners have all been quarantined and they have also been tested and there have not been any positive tests at this point.

“Obviously, they will all remain in quarantine for that two-week period to make sure they are not infectious.

“We have units where they keep them separate from other prisoners so there is no chance of it getting into the prison population.

“They cannot go to hotel quarantine.”

The Correctional services spokeswoman said there was a vaccination process under way and prisoners and staff were prioritised for inoculation under the Covid 1b classification.

She said Queensland Health was managing the vaccination of prisoners and the vaccine process started in April.