Infamous prisoners get offered Covid vaccine as jail rollout hidden by veil of secrecy in some states

In a bizarre twist, the Covid vaccine is being offered first to some of our nation’s most heinous criminals, while official vax rates are being kept a secret in some states.

A veil of secrecy is keeping vaccination rates in NSW prisons a closely guarded secret as two of the state’s biggest prisons were plunged into lockdown following a Covid-19 outbreak.

While corrective services in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania could proudly confirm the vaccination rollout in their state’s prisons was well underway – with Covid-free Tasmania leading the charge with a first-dose vaccination rate of 70 per cent of prisoners – NSW prison officials repeatedly claimed they were unable to source vaccination data.

In NSW, the prison vaccination program is run by government service, Justice Health.

While prisoners and correctional staff are considered part of priority vaccination group 1b in NSW, inmate resistance to vaccination may be stymieing the successful rollout.

“I had my shot the other day and a lot of the guys were like, ‘what did you go and do that for? Why would you put something like that in your body?’” said one prisoner from Lithgow Correctional Centre.

Parklea Correctional Centre has been caught in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak.

“I’d say there’s about 30-40 per cent of guys in here who’ve been offered the jab and they don’t want it. They told us the other week that if we didn’t get it then we faced potential consequences. You might be moved. We’ve heard there’s a plan to move everyone who doesn’t want to be vaccinated to the same centre.”

The source noted there seemed to be particular resistance among certain ethnic groups within the prison, with many putting their refusal to be vaccinated down to “religious reasons”.

And while vulnerable prisons have remained relatively secure against the threat of Covid-19, over the weekend it was revealed both Sydney’s Parklea Prison and Cessnock Correctional Centre in the Hunter Valley had been snapped into lockdown after 12 Covid-positive inmates were detected at Parklea.

Inmates from Lithgow Correctional Centre say that their has been significant resistance to the jab expressed by prisoners.

These inmates had also been in contact with prisoners who were now housed at Cessnock, placing both centres at risk.

Correctional staff have no powers to mandate inmate vaccination but as case numbers explode in NSW and escalate in Victoria there is growing unrest among workers that they are being unsafely exposed to the virus through unvaccinated prisoners. And despite being part of a priority group, the workers themselves have suffered the same access problems as the rest of the population.

“Prison officers understand the risks of Covid-19 and want to be vaccinated,” said Nicole Jess, president of the Public Service Association of NSW.

“The challenge is supply. Prison officers who are still waiting to be vaccinated are now being instructed to go to a hub to get their vaccination.

Senior correctional officer Nicole Jess, at Silverwater Prison, today. Picture: Justin Lloyd

“The PSA has asked NSW Health for further on-site vaccinations for prison officers.”

One officer from Parklea Prison, who declined to be named, recalled one particular instance when vaccination teams arrived at the centre with inadequate supplies to vaccinate both prisoners and staff. “Of course, the inmates got priority,” the source said.

In Queensland, the Pfizer vaccine is being administered to prisoners by Queensland Health’s vaccination clinic and prison health services staff.

In a bizarre twist of bureaucracy, the vaccine in short supply is being offered first to some of our nation’s most heinous criminals – including Daniel Morcombe’s killer Brett Peter Cowan and wife-killer Gerard Baden-Clay – meaning scores of young law-abiding Australians miss out.

Heinous killer Brett Peter Cowan, who murdered young teen Daniel Morcombe, has likely been offered the Pfizer vaccine before other law-abiding Australians.

Queensland Health declined to quantify how many inmates had been vaccinated, suggesting the state’s fluctuating inmate population of approximately 1000 each month – a characteristic inherent to every prison system as people enter and leave custody – made it impossible. However, a spokesman confirmed: “Vaccinations for prisoners and Queensland Corrective Services staff has been under way in Queensland for several months and will continue to be implemented progressively.”

However, in the southern states, the picture looks better.

“There are currently no confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Victorian prison system,” said a Department of Justice of Community Safety spokesman. “Currently, 3,827 adult prisoners in Victoria have received their first vaccination and 2,368 have been fully vaccinated.”

Victoria’s Barwon Prison has often seen unrest but the state’s rollout of its COVID-19 prison vaccination program has been impressive. No other info. Picture: Peter Ristevski

This means 53 per cent of prisoners in both public and private prisons have had their first dose of a vaccine, and approximately 32 per cent are fully vaccinated.

In South Australia, which houses approximately 3000 prisoners, a spokesman from South Australian Health noted: “5000 doses have been administered to correctional staff and prisoners in South Australia. Of this, more than 2,100 prisoners and staff are now fully vaccinated.”
While in Tasmania’s comparatively tiny prison population of 640 prisoners, 458 have received their first vaccination.

Originally published as Infamous prisoners get offered Covid vaccine as jail rollout hidden by veil of secrecy in some states