‘No longer an option’: State put on notice over inaction on brutal prison staff attacks
The prison union has warned it will pursue industrial manslaughter charges over serious assaults on officers amid a spate of violent attacks by high-profile inmates.
Police & Courts
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The union for prison officers has accused the State Government of recklessly endangering its members’ lives amid what it branded an “epidemic of assaults”.
The Community and Public Sector Union has threatened to pursue criminal charges against the Department of Justice and Community Safety over any future assaults and – in the case of a fatality – use industrial manslaughter laws.
A letter from CPSU secretary Karen Batt, seen by the Herald Sun, accuses the department of “troubling inaction” by failing to take robust action in the face of what it says is growing violence against officers.
The letter puts the DJSC on notice that future assaults will be dealt with via the “most serious legal recourse.”
Ms Batt alleges that the department is recklessly endangering the lives of prison staff.
“We will not hesitate to relentlessly pursue WorkSafe Victoria and seek prosecution for the criminal offence of recklessly endangering persons in the workplace (and), in the most egregious cases, pursue industrial manslaughter charges,” Ms Batt wrote.
“The lives of our members are quite literally at stake and the department will be held fully accountable.”
The letter says Corrections Victoria’s statements about valuing staff are rhetoric.
“Inaction is no longer an option. The union and its members demand a firm commitment from the department to take all necessary steps to protect our members from further harm,” Ms Batt wrote.
“The time for half-measures has passed. Our members deserve to return home safely at the end of each shift. we expect swift and decisive action from the department, without delay.”
WorkSafe has been called into the state’s prisons several times in the past year over complaints staff safety was being compromised.
Among the most recent visits was last week when its investigators made an inspection of the Metropolitan Remand Centre after a cell fire tragedy in which a prisoner died.
Sources say the blaze was started after the inmate in the Exford management unit inserted an object into a power point and set alight a mattress.
They say that the detainee had a history of lighting fires in custody and that this presented a risk to the health and safety of staff.
It is believed there is the capacity for power to be disconnected in particular cells in cases where a prisoner is deemed at high-risk.
Staff have been subjected to a string of assaults in recent months.
Convicted murderer and drug boss George Marrogi allegedly assaulted a maximum security officer inside the Metropolitan Remand Centre in late February.
That same month, it took seven workers to restrain a prisoner with a record for violent behaviour who launched at and verbally assaulted five officers in a violent rage at Ravenhall.
On March 6, a prisoner at the MRC put a female worker in a headlock as she served food, punching her in the head and reportedly breaking her nose.
The following week, another female worker was hospitalised after she was bashed inside the facility’s Billingham unit.
In January, former boxer Jamie Bogovic allegedly launched an unprovoked attack on two workers in Barwon Prison, leaving one with a broken nose and dislocated jaw.
Last October, a prisoner at the same facility tipped faeces over officers’ heads while they carried out administrative tasks.
A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokeswoman said the Department had addressed the union’s letter directly and would work with them in good faith about their concerns.
“We have a zero tolerance approach to violence against staff and we will continue to address the root causes of violence to improve staff safety,” she said.
“We are strengthening workplace safety across the corrections system and significant work has been done to support this.”
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