A scathing report by WA’s prisons watchdog has found the state’s prisons are struggling under the weight of understaffing and overcrowding, leading to lengthy lockdowns and unhygienic conditions that breached human rights standards.
The Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services report, released on Thursday, found the adult prison population climbed to more than 7700 in the year to June 2024, an increase of 15 per cent.
Inspector Eamon Ryan said most prisons were grappling with “massive overcrowding”.Credit: Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services.
Inspector Eamon Ryan said the rise had led to a “massive overcrowding” in most facilities which had been exacerbated by sentencing delays.
An examination of the state’s prisons found many were operating at capacity, with cells that had to accommodate a third prisoner and increasingly poor conditions breaching human rights standards.
The watchdog concluded prisons were grappling with daily shortfalls of custodial and non-custodial staff, resulting in restrictions to prisoner access to employment, education, support, recreation, and visits believed to be tied to an increase in self-harm and physical violence.
Ryan said concerns over the impact of those pressures on prisoner welfare at Hakea Prison reached fever pitch in May, when a three-day inspection found the safety of prisoners was at risk and that some were being subject to “inhuman treatment”.
The review uncovered prisoners were not being afforded exercise or time outside their cells or contact with family, were being held in unhygienic conditions and forced to eat dinner in their cell as early as 4pm — leaving them to wait 15 hours between meals.
An analysis of prisoner lockdowns found a correlation between the use of the regime and a rise in self-harm and attempted suicide, prompting Ryan to slap the Department of Justice with a show cause notice and call for urgent action at Hakea and across the system.
Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia is expected to provide a formal response in the coming months.
Ryan also reflected on the two youths who took their lives in custody between October 2023 and August 2024, including 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd — whose death is now the subject of a coronial inquest.
The office had repeatedly called to address the crisis in youth justice over the past decade, but Ryan said those calls had fallen on deaf ears and urged all involved to accept responsibility.
“For over 10 years we have reported on the growing issues and risks about how young people in custody were being managed in Western Australia, but our advice did not result in the systemic changes needed,” he said.
“It is essential that with Cleveland’s passing, and that of another young man this August, urgent, meaningful, and system-wide reform is made.
“We all must accept some level of responsibility for these outcomes, and I include myself in this. I have constantly asked myself whether we could have done more or advocated harder for change. Ultimately, others will form their own view on this question.”
However, the independent body, which overseas the state’s 17 prisons, two youth detention centres, custody centres and prisoner transport, found some improvement in youth custodial services, with increasing staff numbers and a decline in hours young people had spent inside their cell.
The report will heap more pressure on the state government to address the prison crisis, particularly on top of calls for the closure of Unit 18 at the adult Casuarina Prison, an outpost for Banksia Hill.
The government has announced a “therapeutic”, high-security facility that will be built alongside the existing prison, but has declined to confirm when that will occur and how much it will cost.
The report also comes as the state government and the state’s Prison Officers’ Union butt heads over a new pay deal, with union members having rejected the latest offer just weeks ago because it failed to address officer retention issues and demands for improved working conditions.
WAPOU secretary Andy Smith said the number of prison officers leaving the job had tripled in recent years, increasing risks to safety and leading to lengthy lockdowns.
The Department of Justice has been contacted for comment.
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