Chris Minns praises ‘brave’ prison officers but insists they must return to work as appeal over ‘lenient’ inmate sentence looms
NSW Premier Chris Minns has defended the state’s prison officers, calling their work “brave and dangerous”, but urged them to return to duty after their walkout over a “slap on the wrist” sentence. WATCH: Video of the vicious attack.
Police have requested the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) appeal the lenient sentence given to prisoner Cameron Welsh..
It comes as NSW Premier Chris Minns praised the state’s prison guards for their “incredibly difficult” and “brave” work but warned that officers must return to duty to keep the public safe as the government moves to appeal a court decision that triggered mass walkouts.
Mr Minns said he understood the “enormous sense of frustration” among officers following the sentence handed to inmate Cameron Welsh, who viciously assaulted four guards, but stressed prisons were “an essential service”.
“We need prison officers back on the job. I know it’s an incredibly difficult job … but we need to keep the public safe by keeping prisoners locked up,” Mr Minns told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
“Prison officers can’t be treated in this way … the work they do is incredibly brave and dangerous for the state.”
The Premier said the government had already taken steps to strengthen protections for correctional staff and confirmed an appeal was being considered over Welsh’s sentence.
“There’s going to be an appeal … we can’t treat brave corrections officers as if they’re punching bags in our prisons,” he said.
“We’ve got a history of listening to the workforce … and we’ll continue to make sure they’re safe doing this dangerous job.”
Mr Fordham responded bluntly, labelling the sentence as “piss weak.”
Mr Minns said he had been monitoring the situation and was pleased to see “good compliance” with the Industrial Relations Commission’s order for officers to return to work, thanking those who had done so.
It came as furious prison officers had threatened to “take a sickie” in defiance of an order to return to work, following their mass walkout over the “lenient” sentence given to a prisoner who left four guards with “sickening” facial injuries.
Jails were shut down and courts thrown into chaos on Thursday after thousands of prison officers walked out at 8am, starting a 48-hour strike over a magistrate’s decision to sentence inmate Cameron Welsh to a three-year community corrections order.
Welsh, who was in custody for other offences at the time of the assaults, had been charged with assaulting four prison officers and inflicting actual bodily harm.
After the February attacks, the minimum security inmate was moved to the state’s toughest prison – Goulburn “Supermax” – where he remains.
The Cessnock Local Court decision on Wednesday immediately prompted the local branch of the prison workers union to order a walkout, declaring in a motion that the decision had left them feeling “increasingly vulnerable”.
“The current judicial responses fail to adequately deter inmate violence, leaving officers exposed to unacceptable risks, including in this case a career-ending incident for two officers (who) will never work again,” it said.
Other jail staff across the state followed suit, forcing the Minns government and the Public Services Association (PSA) into the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) for an urgent hearing.
Some prisons usually staffed by up to 50 guards were left with fewer than six.
While the PSA on Thursday declared it would abide by the orders of the IRC for officers to stop their strike by 6am Friday – and would recommend its members return to work – a prison source told The Daily Telegraph that it was expected many guards would “take a sickie”.
“Mate, they are angry,” the source said. “They feel like they have been let down again and again.
“Two of these blokes will never work again … I think you’ll see some won’t see the emails or texts. There might be a few sickies.”
The four Cessnock jail officers did not want to speak to the media, but three of them gave the Prison Officers Vocational Branch (POVB) – a branch of the PSA – permission to release photographs of their injuries. The union called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal Welsh’s sentence.
The walkout sent the NSW justice system into disarray, with local, district and supreme courts unable to function without the co-operation of prison officers, who escort defendants and offenders in custody to and from court and to audiovisual links, and guard them while they are in the court’s precincts.
One court staff member at Picton Local Court labelled the disruption a “s...t show”.
Meanwhile, prison officers claim assaults on staff have soared over the past decade, with union-collated figures suggesting they doubled to 301 last year.
Union officials met with Corrections Services Minister Anoulack Chanthivong and Corrective Services Commissioner Gary McCahon only last Friday to discuss the “inadequate support” of officers by the judicial system.
PSA industrial officer Thane Pearce argued in the IRC hearing that the sentence that triggered the walkout had failed staff, who were in “the most dangerous jobs in the state”.
Mr Chanthivong condemned the walkout, declaring a decision of the independent judiciary was “not a basis for industrial action”.
PSA general secretary Stewart Little said his members were appalled at Welsh’s sentence. “These officers suffered horrific injuries, and basically, this inmate has received a slap on the wrist,” he said.
State opposition corrections spokesman Adam Crouch said the strike reflected a “deep-seated frustration” across the state’s prison system.
“When every corrections officer in the state walks out, it tells you everything you need to know about how broken things have become under Labor,” he said.
Originally published as Chris Minns praises ‘brave’ prison officers but insists they must return to work as appeal over ‘lenient’ inmate sentence looms
