Mass Darwin jail breakout: Prisoners ‘weren’t happy for some reason’, says Justice Minister Natasha Fyles

JUSTICE Minister Natasha Fyles says prisoners ‘weren’t happy for some reason’ after more than 20 inmates escaped their cells and climbed onto the roofs of Darwin Correctional Centre overnight

Minister for Justice Natasha Fyles spoke on radio about the incident at Darwin Corrctional Centre. Picture: Che Chorley

JUSTICE Minister Natasha Fyles has said prisoners “weren’t happy for some reason” after more than 20 inmates escaped their cells and climbed onto the roofs of Darwin Correctional Centre last night.

Speaking on ABC Radio Ms Fyles said the incident was under investigation, with Corrections Commissioner Scott McNairn at the site.

“We had an incident where prisoners weren’t happy for some reason, we’re still working through that and they caused disruption,” she said.

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“This disruption was quite serious and we had additional resources called in, both correctional officers and police. The incident ended around midnight as I understand and that there’s no serious injuries at this stage but I understand that there is damage to the premises, to the correctional facility and the commissioner is out there presently inspecting and will give me a full update.”

Ms Fyles said NT Police was in the process of interviewing and laying charges.

Emergency service vehicles arrive at Darwin Correctional Precinct late last night after 21 priosnrs broke out of thir cells and climbed on to the roofs of multiple buildings. Picture: Che Chorley

When asked if the prisoners were prompted by coronavirus restrictions placed on Darwin Correctional Centre, Ms Fyles said “prison is not a holiday”.

“Somebody has done the wrong thing and our court system has sentenced them to time in incarceration but we do acknowledge that it is important, particularly for the families on the outside that there is some interaction,” she said.

“But we’re in an unprecedented pandemic around the coronavirus, the correctional services here in the Territory have implemented a range of comprehensive pandemic contingency plans to protect our prisoners.

“We have a very vulnerable population, we have over 1600 prisoners Territory wide and sadly 85 per cent of those are indigenous Territorians … we certainly have been looking towards what we can do with the prison population

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“I don’t have those specific details (on when visitation would return), that’s an operational question for the commissioner but we need to make sure that we keep that prison population safe and that we manage this through a pandemic.”

It is understood Ms Fyles and Commissioner McNairn will address the media later today.