New staff join ranks in Territory prisons, 40 more expected to hop on board next year
Eight new officers will be ‘behind the wire’ in a Red Centre prison only hours after graduating and being sworn in – as the Corrections Commissioner says an ‘emergency management phase’ continues.
Northern Territory
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New graduates are going “inside the wire” in an at-capacity prison hours after being sworn in as corrections officers, as Territory prisons are “in a continuing emergency management phase”, which will see youth detainees in the Red Centre transferred to the Top End.
On Friday, eight new corrections officers were sworn in at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre.
On Thursday, nine were sworn in at the Darwin Correctional Centre.
One of the eight in Alice Springs, Daniel Smith, said he would be heading “inside the wire” “literally this (Friday) afternoon” – only hours after he was sworn in.
“So we finish up with friends and family, I believe 1pm, and it’s only an eight hour shift today, so three hours inside the wire and straight into it,” he said.
Talking to media before the event, NT Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley said the prison was still short “30 to 40” corrections officers.
He said he wanted the new recruits “working tonight if we could, but we do give them a night or two off”.
Also speaking with Mr Varley was deputy Chief Minister Gerard Maley, who said another 40 recruits are set to start in January.
He did not specify at what locations they would be working.
The eight new graduates come as Alice Springs Correctional Centre has “consistently” been at its capacity of 700 prisoners “for weeks”, while the Alice Springs watch house is going through a “surge” with 43 inside on Friday, Mr Varley said.
Only days earlier, on Wednesday, a record number of prisoners were recorded in Territory prisons, with 2497 inmates behind bars in one day.
“We work closely to make sure that our staff are managing that population inside the fence properly and safely, and that’s why we’re seeing those overflows into the watch houses,” Mr Varley said.
Youth inmates in Alice Springs are set to be moved to the Darwin youth detention as part of the “master plan,” Mr Varley said.
The move comes as “emergency actions” – which had union members threatening to walk from the job – implemented at the end of October are “continuing,” he said.
“We’re in a continuing emergency management phase. What we’re doing is managing the population changes that we come to work each day and see,” he said.
The emergency actions saw women flown from Alice Springs prison to Darwin prison.
This masthead understands they could be coming back, pending the completion of the new Alice Springs women’s facility in January.
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Originally published as New staff join ranks in Territory prisons, 40 more expected to hop on board next year
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