Former Capricornia Correctional Centre employee sheds light on alleged toxic workplace at Rockhampton jail

A corrective services officer had his head held under water as punishment during training in what could be described as ‘hazing’, a Rockhampton prison worker claimed. It’s just one of a series of astonishing allegations.

A corrective services officer had his head held under water as punishment during training in what could be described as ‘hazing’, a Rockhampton prison worker claimed.

This is just one of the astonishing claims the worker made to The Morning Bulletin about their time at the Capricornia Correctional Centre.

The staff member, who has asked to remain anonymous due to legal reasons, claimed dozens of brazen incidents happened at the prison north of Rockhampton.

Hazing during training, officers tipping off prisoners about cell raids, officers trafficking tobacco and other contraband for prisoners, assaults, and unethical staff behaviour are among more.

“It’s stuff like from a movie, you sit there and go ‘that can’t have really just happened’, but it did,” they said.

“It’s stuff you can’t make up.”

Anonymous claimed there wasn’t just one corrupt staff member, but many, and if something wasn’t done soon, it wouldn’t end well.

“Someone is going to get killed out there … Someone is really severely going to get hurt,” they said.

The hazing incident with the laundry tub happened during training, they claimed.

Capricornia Correctional Centre has been at the centre of controversy.

Training for corrective services officers is carried out at the North Street Annex near the Rockhampton Base Hospital, and at the prison itself at Etna Creek.

“It started off okay, I thought ‘this isn’t so bad’ … They had a lot of legislation and paperwork which I thought was good,” Anonymous said.

“As it went along … This officer (involved in the tub incident) was absolutely belittled and screamed at in his face.

“With the comment afterwards ‘if anyone has a problem with it, there is the door, leave now’.”

The team was doing control and restraint training and Anonymous said the same officer was grabbed by the team members.

“The laundry tub had been filled up and he was picked up and held under water upside down and was told ‘now you have learnt your lesson’,” Anonymous said.

“It was one of those things where we went ‘did it happen or did we imagine it … Some of the things were just so wrong that it can’t be real.”

The first day on the job, Anonymous witnessed other officers tell the prisoners “to get rid of their drugs and contraband because they are going to ramp (raid) the unit”.

“I thought, surely that didn’t just happen, they didn’t just tell the unit,” Anonymous said.

“Another time I had a supervisor say ‘make sure the guys know they are likely to get ramped today’.

“There was one unit where they said “don‘t upset my boys”, and officers brought stuff in for prisoners.”

One unit was known as the ‘fight club’ and officers would ask prisoners to ‘belt’ other prisoners.

As has been the experience with other former employees The Morning Bulletin has spoken with, complaints were made to various officials, but nothing was done.

Anonymous reported concerns to the Ethical Standards Unit and Queensland Corrective Services however the complaints only went back to the management at Capricornia Correctional Centre.

“You can’t tell anyone because it gets back to the officers that you’ve said something,” Anonymous said.

“You couldn’t report anything to the prison itself.”

Anonymous was not once scared of prisoners – they were more concerned about the actions of officers.

“Put me in a unit with 46 prisoners, no issues, I will deal with the 46 prisoners. Put them in the unit with some of the officers and you don’t know what is going to happen because you don’t know what they are going to get the prisoners to do,” Anonymous said.

“The prisoners are nothing compared to what the officers could do.”

Anonymous claimed they witnessed straight and narrow officers succumb to the demands of the corrupt officers and fall down the path of unethical behaviour.

“They just get mixed up with all of the rest of the staff, this shocking behavior becomes normalised,” Anonymous said.

“A lot of the officers have to cop it because they don’t have another job to fall back on.

“Some of them are mature aged and are worried that they wont be able to get a job elsewhere as they have no transferable skills.”

The experience of working at the Rockhampton prison and the way Anonymous was treated by other officers has taken a distressing toll on their mental health.

“I really don’t like going out... it has had a really big impact on all areas of my life,

” Anonymous said.

“I hate going out, I don’t sleep, I have nightmares all the time … just reliving it over and over again.

“I should have walked out a long time ago, because of what it has done to me, from what I was to what I am now.”

Queensland Corrective Services announced on July 9 it would be commissioning an independent workplace review of the Capricornia Correctional Centre.

The review will impartially examine workplace issues at the centre in a confidential and supportive setting.

QCS has commenced the process of procurement for a supplier with a select group of experienced providers and this is expected to be finalised in September.

This story is the ninth in an investigative series into Capricornia Correctional Centre by The Morning Bulletin’s Vanessa Jarrett.

Other stories have included two former employees’ experiences with corruption, deaths at the prison, a history of the prison and new information from the 2019 Crime and Corruption Commission hearing which resulted in many officers facing multiple charges.

See the links to the other stories here.

Originally published as Former Capricornia Correctional Centre employee sheds light on alleged toxic workplace at Rockhampton jail