The Northern Territory Police Association said it was a matter of when, not if, a death or serious in custody incident would occur at the Palmerston watch house.

NTPA President Nathan Finn said on Monday night the Palmerston watch house had 92 people in custody, 76 of whom were Correctional prisoners.

Mr Finn said the “overflow” of both remand and sentenced prisoners were pushing the police facilities into “crisis”, with no contingency cells available if people had a mental health episode or became violent.

“Our biggest fear is someone passing away in custody,” he said.

“We’ve seen current deaths in custody and the prolonged effect that has on our police force.”

Territorians said their time in the watch house was “disgusting” and “sickening”, with one woman stating: “You get treated like animals.”

Annastasia* – not her real name – was granted bail from the Darwin Local Court on Tuesday after spending two days in the Palmerston watch house because her ankle monitor allegedly ran out of battery.

The 31-year-old said she and eight other women were exposed to “disgusting” conditions, with limited sanitary products, a broken toilet, no access to showers and limited medical support.

“You’ve got eight girls crammed in one cell, girls are on their periods not even being allowed to have showers,” Annastasia said outside of court.

“When I was in there, there was a pile of blankets that were bloodied from periods... sheets that are just pushed into a pile against the wall.”

She said there were no privacy barriers around the toilet, so the women had started lifting up the mattresses to make a “little block” to avoid the gaze of both male officers and prisoners.

To make matters worse, Annastasia said one cell’s only drinking water tap was right over a “blocked” toilet bowl, which had been broken for more than a week.

The NT News has repeatedly heard issues with people accessing medical support while in the watch house cells, including reports of a man with chronic epilepsy who went five days without his medication in Palmerston.

Annastasia said no medical assistance was given to one woman who had constant “headaches and fevers”, while another woman “broke down crying” because staff were unable to address her mental health needs and she was instead taken to prison.

“There was even a pregnant woman in there who had stomach pains — for two weeks in a row she was … asking to see medical — not one person went and saw her,” she said.

“There’s no help whatsoever, no support … The treatment it was sickening.”

Outside of court, Annastasia said she was lucky to have only spent two days in Palmerston watch house, saying “there’s been girls who have been in there for like 28 days”.

While the watch house is only designed for short-term overnight stays, 24-year-old Willis John Carlow said he was in a Palmerston cell for 10 days after allegedly breaching a domestic violence order.

Mr Carlow said it was “pretty horrible” with no access to sunlight or outdoor spaces, were under the fluorescent lights 24/7, and was crammed into a cell with up to 16 other men.

“You can’t move around, you’re not allowed outside. You stay in that little area for the whole day, until you get called (for court).”

The young man said there was no separation between where they were meant to eat and their communal toilet.

“You’ve got to sh--t in front of other people, and same, you’re eating while they’re sh-tting,” Mr Carlow said.

“I’m not going to go back there again.”

Both Police Minister Lia Finocchario and Corrections Minister Gerard Maley were asked to respond to allegations of inadequate hygiene facilities, the lack of showers, the failure to respond to medical concerns, and the concerns about the safety and welfare of police officers.

A NT Government spokeswoman said police watch houses would continue to be used due to a failure by the previous government to expand Corrections infrastructure.

“If you’re not breaking the law, you have nothing to fear,” she said.

“We make no apology for putting community safety first.”

Mr Finn was unimpressed that Ms Finocchario and Mr Maley were prepared to put this burden on police, without considering the impact on the “burnt out” and “frustrated” workforce.

“If they’re happy to take that risk, I’m more than happy to have them and employ them as my custody staff in my watch house,” he said.

The conditions inside Palmerston mirror reports from the Alice Springs Watch House in February, where two women revealed they had spent weeks in a cramped, hot, smelly, and unsanitary cell, left to go hungry and without medication.

The NT News has also heard claims of men in the Palmerston watch house custody masturbating while in view of the women’s cells, while children have been held in “solitary isolation” for days.

Long-term use of watch houses unable to meet ‘minimum human rights standards’

A person who works with recently released people told the NT News in March said conditions inside of Palmerston watch house were exposing vulnerable people to traumatising and dangerous conditions.

“It’s like the jails that you see from a third world country, but it’s just in a new building,” she said.

“People that are vulnerable are being treated even more poorly still, it’s just another layer of trauma and self-stigmatisation.

“They’ve got human rights for god’s sake.”

A NT Police spokeswoman said all watch houses were managed through “strict policy, procedures and instructions … underpinned by legislation and various recommendations by the courts”.

“The primary consideration in relation to people in police custody is the safety and welfare of the individual,” she said.

“All persons in custody are provided with basic necessities and are treated with respect.”

The Northern Territory Ombudsman has confirmed it has received complaints specifically about the Palmerston watch house, while also raising concerns about the long-term use of Alice Springs and Darwin police cells.

The watchdog’s latest annual report said it was concerned that watch houses’ infrastructure “severely limits their ability to meet minimum human rights standards”.

“The facilities are not capable of being sufficiently improved to meet minimum standards and so should not be used in an ongoing capacity,” the report said.