‘Foreign metal object’ in dinner triggers extended morning lockdown at Alice Springs prison

Prisoners barred from leaving their cells after a ‘serious security breach’ at Alice Springs Correctional Centre.

Prisoners in the Alice Springs Correctional Centre were barred from leaving their rooms for hours on Thursday morning following a reported security breach.

Reports of metal found hidden in a prisoner’s meal have forced hundreds of inmates into an extended lockdown in their cells.

Prisoners at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre were barred from leaving their rooms for hours on Thursday morning following the reported security breach.

It was understood the extension of the overnight lockdown was triggered when a prisoner found a “foreign metal object” in their dinner on Wednesday.

Several items were reported missing from the kitchen at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre.

A source with connections to the prison, who did not want to be named, said several items were noted as missing from the prison kitchen in what they called a “serious security breach”.

A Corrections spokesman confirmed the end of the overnight lockdown of the prison was delayed on Thursday morning “due to an operational matter that required investigation”.

He said rather than being allowed out of their cells at 8am, prisoners had to wait up to two hours to be released.

“This impacted the daily regime and audiovisual link court appearances and prisoner phone calls were temporarily impacted,” the spokesman said.

He said there were 2092 Territorians behind bars on Thursday.

According to the latest population data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, this meant roughly one per cent of the Territory’s total population was locked up.