Prison overcrowding ‘not ideal’ but accommodation is ‘adequate’, even for inmates on remand: NTG

The NT government says overcrowding in the Territory’s prisons that sees inmates sleeping on floors is ‘not ideal’ but ‘adequate’, even for those who have not been convicted of any crime.

UPDATE WEDNESDAY: THE NT government says overcrowding in the Territory’s prisons that has inmates sleeping on floors is “not ideal” but “adequate”, even for those who have not been convicted of any crime.

High profile criminal barrister John Lawrence SC told Darwin Local Court the situation meant continuing to send prisoners to Territory jails was “bordering on unlawful” after he was unable to reach his client on Tuesday.

But in response, a spokesman for NT Correctional Services said the department acknowledged its “responsibility to provide access to justice for all prisoners”.

“The high number of remand prisoners creates an extra challenge to ensure timely access for their legal representatives,” he said.

“Overcrowded accommodation arrangements are not ideal but NTCS considers they are adequate to ensure safety, decency and wellbeing of all prisoners.”

TUESDAY: A TOP Darwin lawyer has pleaded with the Territory’s judges to refuse to send defendants to “packed to the rafters” prisons that are “bordering on unlawful”.

In seeking “yet another adjournment” in the Darwin Local Court on Tuesday after being unable to reach his client, John Lawrence SC urged judge David Woodroffe to personally visit the “grossly” overcrowded Holtze Prison to see the “broken” system for himself.

“I’m pretty sure your honour has the authority, I know a Supreme Court judge does, and I know judges elsewhere do,” he said.

“You could go out to that prison right now and just knock on the door and say ‘I’m a judge of the Local Court, I want to have look around this place, because I’m making orders during the course of my day that puts men and women, young and old, in your care’.”

Mr Lawrence said it was “bordering on unlawful, putting any man or woman in the prison the way it’s designed now”, with “men sleeping on the floor in cells” and no access to their lawyers.

“I’ve made this submission in relation to every youth justice magistrate I’ve been in font of in the last six months and said to them that if they make an order detaining a child in Berrimah Prison (Youth Justice Centre), as it currently is, they will be in breach of the law, you will be breaking the law, you will be non-judicial,” he said.

John Lawrence SC protests outside the former Berrimah Prison turned Youth Justice Centre.

“I say this as a senior counsel of over 10 years appointment, I have duty to the administration of justice in this jurisdiction, which is mine, which is ours, and it’s seriously not functioning.

“Somebody needs to step up, and judicial officers, in my humble opinion, with the greatest of respect, need to do more, they need to speak up, they have in the past.

“Something has to be done.”

In granting the adjournment, Mr Woodroffe did not commit to visiting the prison but said it was “an inappropriate state of affairs”, noting “access to legal counsel is a fundamental human right”.

“I would simply encourage the persons who have the safe custody of people in the prison authorities to ensure that there is adequate access to all persons and indeed counsel,” he said.