Darwin lawyers raise alarm over delays in accessing clients due to prison staffing shortages

Territorians awaiting sentences or fighting for their innocence are facing lengthy delays to access legal representation due to an ongoing staffing crisis in Territory prisons.

Territorians are facing lengthy delays to access critical legal advice while locked up in Darwin’s understaffed and overcrowded prison.

Lawyers have raised the alarm over ongoing restrictions to accessing their clients held in the Darwin Correctional Centre, as the jail grapples with a surging prison population.

One criminal lawyer, who asked not to be named, said they had faced bureaucratic roadblocks to contacting their clients held in the Holtze facility.

A Corrections spokeswoman said the average processing time for legal visits was two hours but emails provided to this publication showed the lawyer had to wait five days for an urgent visit.

Despite putting in their request on Monday, it took two days to confirm a booking, with the earliest available slot at 3.40pm on Friday — more than 100 hours after their initial request.

An email from the prison’s executive operational liaison officer Lisa McClenahan said the delay was due to the visitor unit being “severely short staffed”.

“There are wait times for the staff to answer email and telephone booking requests,” she said.

The lawyer also told the prison they were unable to contact clients by phone, including losing communication with one prisoner for a month.

After the lawyer flagged that they had not heard from one of their clients on remand, the prison said this was due to the man’s call list being “inadvertently amended” after a hospital visit — removing his access to legal advice.

“This has been rectified and the prisoner is able to make calls when his account has sufficient funds or calls to lawyers,” Ms McClenahan said.

Another particularly vulnerable prisoner did not contact the lawyer for two days, with Ms McClenahan saying this was because of “rolling lockdowns … due to staff shortages”.

Corrections data showed there were 562 remand prisoners in the Darwin Correctional Centre as of April 30 — and a total of 755 legal visits that month. Picture: Che Chorley

Ms McClenahan said the woman was allowed 45 minutes outside her accommodation block in 48 hours, which was her only opportunity to use the Prisoner Telephone System.

NT Corrections did not respond further to the specific allegations but the spokeswoman said “where possible” personal and professional visits would be facilitated.

“However, due to high prisoner numbers and staff pressures there are instances where this can take longer than expected,” she said.

The spokeswoman confirmed the number of legal visits in April fell compared to the previous two years, despite the number of remand prisoners increasing.

Corrections data showed there were 562 remand prisoners in the Darwin Correctional Centre as of April 30 — and a total of 755 legal visits that month for an average of 1.3 legal visits per remand prisoner.

This was half the legal visitor rate from April 2021, with 1074 legal visits for 431 remand prisoners.

The latest NT Legal Aid annual report said accessing the prisons was one of the main “drivers of inefficiencies” contributing to a growing court backlog.

“(There are) delays in obtaining instructions from clients in custody as a result of the increasing number of detainees on remand together with limited AVL facilities and phones,” it said.

The Corrections spokeswoman said as of June 6, there were 1252 prisoners at Holtze — 204 more than the design capacity of the prison — with more than half on remand.

In March, the union negotiated a new enterprise bargaining agreement with a specific “safe staffing levels” clause.

The Corrections spokeswoman said the staffing quotients and operating procedures agreement set the Darwin Correctional Centre’s “approved operational establishment” at 382 custodial officers.

However, she said in June approximately 144 operational staff were rostered on each day in Darwin prison — a ratio of one worker to more than eight prisoners.

“NT Correctional Services acknowledge staff shortages in both Darwin and Alice Springs correctional facilities,” she said.

But the spokeswoman was unable to confirm how long rolling lockdowns had been in effect.

“(Rolling lockdowns) ensure that one area of the prison is not continually locked down and prisoners are provided time out of their cell on a rolling basis across sections,” she said.

Justice reform advocates have called for the accelerated roll out new approaches to crime to deal with the “swollen prison system”.

Smarter Justice for Safer Communities has called for the NT government to fast track alternatives to custody, community courts and other law and justice approaches flagged in the recent 2022-23 Budget.

Smarter Justice spokeswoman Olga Havnen said the Territory suffered from an “over-reliance on incarceration” with the prison rates 4.5 times higher than the national rate.

Smarter Justice for Safer Communities spokeswoman and Northern Territory Aboriginal Justice Agreement co-chair Olga Havnen called for new approaches to relieve stress on the NT prison system. Picture: Sierra Haigh

”We have a justice system that is at the mercy of the revolving prison door – people come and go and, more often than not, they return to prison again within two years,” Ms Havnen said.

“Smarter justice initiatives work because they can achieve what prison … cannot – they tackle the underlying causes of and contributors to crime and stop the cycle of offending.”

Ms Havnen said Territorians on remand were particularly at risk, as the unsentenced prisoners were denied access to prison support services like drug and alcohol counselling or behaviour programs.

In May, the NT parliament passed the Sentencing Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 which reintroduced the community courts system, 11 years after they were abolished in 2012.

Ms Havnen said these courts had significant potential to take pressure off the court and prison system by delivering flexible community-based orders.

“These courts will also reduce the need for people in remote areas to travel away from home for matters to be heard,” she said.