Sydney’s Parklea jail slammed over inmate Covid-19 infections

Judges and health experts have strongly criticised the practice of confining inmates who tested negative to Covid-19 in a privately run NSW prison in areas alongside Covid-positive prisoners.

Parklea Correctional Centre in Sydney’s northwest. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Judges and health experts have strongly criticised the practice of confining inmates who tested negative to Covid-19 in a privately run NSW prison in cells and quarantine wings alongside Covid-positive prisoners.

The practice at Parklea Correctional Centre – the site of a large Delta outbreak last month – was exposed in a court judgment and described as “extremely concerning” by a sentencing judge, with health experts saying inmates had been exposed to grave risk.

NSW District Court deputy chief judge Andrew Colefax accepted the evidence of an inmate who said he was confined alongside a Covid-19 cellmate for four weeks and told she would only be sent back to the general population after he had caught Covid-19 and recovered.

“This evidence, unchallenged by the Crown, is extremely concerning,” Judge Colefax said in sentencing remarks.

“It is even more concerning ­because it does not seem to be an isolated case involving Parklea Correctional Centre.”

The operator of the Parklea Correctional Centre, MTC-Broadspectrum, is looking into the man’s circumstances but is understood to dispute some details of his court evidence. “The safety of all staff and inmates is our number one priority,” a spokesperson for MTC-Broadspectrum said.

“All inmates who tested positive were reviewed daily by a team of mental health specialists and our St Vincent’s Correctional Health clinicians.

“They were also seen daily by our St Vincent’s Emergency medical specialists and general practitioners and were monitored and prescribed medications required as clinically indicated.”

Ten days ago, Supreme Court judge Mark Ierace released a prisoner facing extremely serious charges on bail because he was not satisfied NSW Corrective Services and Justice Health could treat the prisoner’s health conditions in a responsible and appropriate fashion. The prisoner, who had cancer, caught Covid-19 in prison after allegedly being held at Parklea Correctional Centre in a cell with a Covid-positive inmate for six days despite initially testing negative for the virus.

University of NSW emeritus professor of medicine John Dwyer labelled the practice of housing negative inmates with Covid-19 positive prisoners as “terrible” especially given prisoners were particularly vulnerable to infection and serious disease.

“The whole point is to keep people away from each other to minimise the spread of the virus. Enforced close contact is particularly dangerous,” he said.

Sydney barrister Emmanuel Kerkyasharian said he was shocked by the practice: “It’s absolutely astonishing that they are risking the lives of prisoners in circumstances where the rest of our society has done everything it can to stop transmission occurring.”

Parklea Correctional Centre experienced a large outbreak of Covid-19 in late August and throughout September, with a total of 150 cases recorded. There are now no active cases in the jail.