Inmates and correctional officers assaulted as violent incidents within SA prisons doubles
Violence has soared to record numbers within SA prisons as the number of inmates reaches a five-year high.
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Violence in the state’s jails has soared to record levels, with new data revealing 481 inmates and correctional officers were assaulted in the last financial year.
Department of Correctional Services figures show the number of attacks in 2023-24 more than doubled from the 239 recorded in 2022-23 – and was three times higher than the 143 recorded in 2021-22.
More than one prisoner is assaulted everyday by a fellow inmate in the state’s jails, with 366 assaults and 71 serious assaults — more than double the 2022-23 numbers and up from 33 in the 2019-20 period.
Correctional Services officers were also subjected to a huge rise in serious assaults – with 14 in 2023-24 up from eight in the last financial year and just three in 2019-20.
In total there were 44 Correctional Services officers that were victims of assault in the last year.
An assault is classified as a serious assault if it requires medical treatment.
Figures exclusively revealed to The Advertiser, identifies Yalata as the most dangerous lockup in SA, followed by the Adelaide Remand Centre and Port Augusta.
In a statement in response to inquiries, new Correctional Services Minister Emily Bourke said that prisoners who committed an act of violence towards staff or who are assessed as a heightened risk are managed on more intensive regimes.
This may include formal separation under jail laws.
“Any assaults against correctional officers are unacceptable and police will continue to take action against prisoners who harm frontline workers,” she said.
It comes as the government says it has successfully cracked-down on prison drug trafficking.
In a recent blitz, a man, 44, was arrested for trafficking into a state prison after he was caught with methamphetamine, cannabis and ecstasy.
Additionally a 34-year-old woman was reported for possessing a controlled drug in a prison buffer zone, the state government said.
It comes as average daily prisoner numbers continued to climb – Yatala Labour Prison had a 17 per cent increase over the past 12 months – and across the state prisoner numbers are at a five-year high.
Australian Bureau of Statistics numbers suggest that the majority of the increase in prisoners is from unsentenced, male and Indigenous prisoners. With the largest offence type increases were theft and related offences, up 26 per cent, sexual assault and related offences up 21 per cent and acts intended to cause injury, up 11 per cent.
The Malinauskas Government says it has committed more than $220m to expand Yatala Labour Prison and Adelaide Women’s Prison.
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Originally published as Inmates and correctional officers assaulted as violent incidents within SA prisons doubles
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