Queensland prison officers fear Covid outbreak due to loophole

Furious prison officers fear a Covid-19 outbreak could happen due to a “loophole” that will allow unvaccinated visitors to come to jails if they are accompanied by children.

Furious prison officers fear a Covid-19 outbreak could happen due to a “loophole” that will allow unvaccinated visitors to come to jails if they are accompanied by children.

Under new directives to take place from Friday only vaccinated visitors will be allowed in prisons.

But an unvaccinated visitor is allowed if they are accompanying a child, according to Queensland Health guidelines. 

At the same time, all corrective service officers have been told they must get vaccinated under a State Government mandate or face unknown consequences. 

“We have serious concerns about coronavirus getting into a correctional centre,” a prison officer told The Courier-Mail.

“Without the proper mitigation strategies in place this is a recipe for disaster.

“It’s a bloody big loophole – the unvaccinated person is not allowed in, but if you bring in a child it’s OK.”

Queensland prison officers have slammed a loophole that allows unvaccinated visitors into jails. Picture: Peter Wallis

It’s unclear if unvaccinated visitors will be allowed contact visits and questions around this issue were not answered by Queensland Corrective Services.

But prison officers at a number of jails yesterday voted unanimously to say they did not support contact visits in centres without additional controls in place.

Together Union assistant secretary Michael Thomas said measures were needed for all contact visits to ensure there wasn’t a Covid-19 outbreak in jails.

He said because there was short notice around a chief health officer directive being released and implemented there were many unanswered questions.

“We are certainly concerned that their plans for dealing with potential outbreaks in centres and dealing with vaccinated and unvaccinated are not particularly detailed at the moment,” Mr Thomas said.

Queensland Corrective Services were asked about the issue relating to unvaccinated visitors yesterday and what measures would be in place to ensure there was not an outbreak. 

A QCS spokesperson said it continued to follow the directions released by the chief health officer.

“If an unvaccinated person is required to accompany a minor, they must follow mitigation measures put in place by the prison, which includes wearing a face mask,” the spokesperson said.

“We encourage visitors to our centres to get vaccinated as soon as they can if they haven’t already done so to protect our officers, prisoners and their loved ones.

“We are aware that many of our officers are already fully vaccinated, and we encourage those who aren’t to book a vaccination as soon as possible.”

The spokesperson said QCS would continue to support officers getting the vaccination off-site during their shift on paid time.

Originally published as Queensland prison officers fear Covid outbreak due to loophole