Prison in lockdown ‘every day’

Maximum security prisoners are being squeezed two to a cell as the Tasmanian Prison Service grapples with overcrowding and understaffing.

Maximum security prisoners are being squeezed two to a cell. Picture: SUPPLIED

MAXIMUM security prisoners are being squeezed two to a cell as the Tasmanian Prison Service grapples with overcrowding and understaffing — issues advocates claim leave areas of the system locked down every day.

Inmates, unions and criminal lawyers have this week blown the whistle on daily lockdowns that trap prisoners in their units for hours at a time.

“It is mentally and physically a strain on us and our family who don’t get informed of our lockdowns and wait for our calls stressing,” one inmate told the Mercury.

“It’s sort of [like] being someone’s puppy they have forgotten about.”

On Tuesday alone the Launceston Remand Centre was in lockdown from 8.15am- 4.30pm, Risdon’s maximum security units from 12.30- 4.25pm and Mary Hutchinson from 7.30-10.30am and again from 3.15-5pm, according to the Community and Public Sector Union. State secretary Tom Lynch said the lockdowns were attributed to staffing shortages.

He added that cells within the Hobart Reception Prison and medium and maximum security units at Risdon were increasingly “double-bunked” — meaning prisoners were forced to share rooms — because the system was nearing capacity. There were 679 prisoners in a system designed for 739, he said, which allowed for medical and specialist beds.

“The Government keeps locking people up but didn’t increase the capacity of prisons before implementing their agenda of law and order,” Mr Lynch said. “That has put our whole prison system under immense pressure.”

The Custodial Inspector detailed issues of overcrowding in its most recent annual report — including instances of double and triple-bunking.

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Principal inspector Lisa Steele said the office would provide information on the effect of lockdowns in a report to Parliament this year.

“The inspectorate is fully aware of the increasing number of lockdowns in Tasmanian adult custodial centres and we continue to raise this matter directly with the Tasmania Prison Service,” Ms Steele said yesterday.

A Justice Department spokesman said it was “very rare” for the entire prison facility to be locked down — and emphasised lockdowns did not always mean prisoners were confined to their cells.

“The prison is currently under capacity with significant capital works under way to upgrade existing facilities,” the spokesman said. “In addition, significant progress is being made on the development of the new 140 bed Southern Remand facility and the new 270- bed Northern Prison.”

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