Annual report details extent of overcrowding problems at Risdon Prison

THE state’s prison system is so overcrowded some cells are being double- or triple-bunked, the Custodial Inspector’s annual report says.

Risdon Prison inmate numbers have been rising at more than 10 per cent a year. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

INMATES in the state’s prisons are being held in overcrowded, outdated and substandard conditions and a new facility is urgently needed as prisoner numbers continue to rise sharply, Custodial Inspector Richard Connock says.

Mr Connock plaints a bleak picture of the state’s prison system in his annual report, which was tabled in Parliament today.

Prisoner numbers have been rising at more than 10 per cent a year in recent years, he said.

“Continual growth in prisoner numbers appears to be the biggest challenge for the Tasmanian Prison Service,” Mr Connock wrote in the report.

“The prison service has to respond to an ever-increasing prisoner population and there is no indication that this increase is abating.

“Almost all the state’s prisons are overcrowded in the sense that they hold many more people than they were designed to hold.

“This is because many cells intended for one person are now ‘double-bunked’ and some cells intended for two people are now ‘triple-bunked’.”

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Mr Connock said overcrowding meant that minimum security prisoners were being held in medium and maximum security, prisoners were given only restricted time out of their cells and access to rehabilitative programs was limited.

He was especially critical of the 50-year-old Ron Barwick minimum security prison, which in 2001 was described as “a particularly unpleasant place”, out-of-date when it was built and totally inappropriate for a Tasmanian winter.

“Despite the passing of 16 years, little has changed,” Mr Connock said.

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The report said the situation at the Launceston Reception Prison was even worse — with prisoners having no access to natural light, airflow or running hot water, had defective showers and poor access to toilets.

The Mary Hutchinson Women’s Prison and the Hobart Reception Prison were also exceeding capacity or even bed-blocked, the report said.

“It seems clear Tasmania needs a new facility to accommodate increasing demand,” Mr Connock concluded.

Prisoners Legal Service chair Greg Barns said the prison system was dangerous for staff and for prisoners.

“It is inhumane, obsessed with security at the expense of rehabilitation, and punitive. The result is a poor return for the taxpayer and community with high recidivism rates.

“The situation is now the worst it has been for over a decade because of the current government’s obsession with locking more people up.”

Greens Justice spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said current policies weren’t working.

“Under the Liberals’ watch, there’s more people in prison and crime is increasing,” she said.

“Serious crimes have gone up 11 per cent and the number of people being diverted into drug rehabilitation, away from a path of crime, has dropped 22 per cent.”