‘North Korea’ style conditions behind bars for Victoria’s most dangerous women

Inmates at Victoria’s largest women’s prison — housing mushroom cook Erin Patterson — are repeatedly locked down due to staff shortages, but workers say “North Korea”-style orders ban them from speaking out.

Some of the state’s most dangerous women, including mushroom cook Erin Patterson, are living in “North Korea” style conditions behind bars, prison sources say.

Inmates at Victoria’s largest women’s prison, which houses pedophile principal Malka Leifer and child kidnapper Samantha Azzopardi, are being thrust into lockdowns almost every day, according to Corrections Victoria figures.

Guards at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre claim new orders have also banned prisoners from talking to the media amid a staffing crisis, with many lockdowns understood to be due to a lack of guards available to supervise them.

Triple murderer Erin Patterson. Picture: Martin Keep/AFP

Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.

Prisoner movement has also been heavily restricted, prompting some frustrated inmates to reportedly jump internal fences, sources told the Herald Sun.

One prison guard said the huge restrictions in movement had “never happened in the history of DPFC” and that the infrastructure was not up to maximum security standard.

Another reported that some chain locks were being secured with cable ties.

Usually, they said, prisoners had autonomy in moving around the prison for work, programs, medical and education.

However, recent changes mean extra gates have been locked, prisoners must carry movement slips and staff are required to man the gates on the hour to let the prisoners in and out.

Prisoners struggling with mental health issues after being cut off from their usual privileges during lockdowns have also been prohibited from contacting journalists under recent changes.

An internal email, seen by the Herald Sun, warned staff of a new ban on “unsolicited contact” with the media.

“I didn’t know I lived in North Korea,” one guard said.

Between July 1 last year and April 30 this year there were 249 days out of a 304 days in which a unit or area was locked down, according to figures revealed following Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings.

Sources, however, said almost daily lockdowns were still continuing.

Malka Leifer. Picture: David Crosling

Samantha Azzopardi. Picture: Facebook

Corrections Minister Enver Erdogan said that the majority were due to “security and emergency” and “adverse weather”.

The average time of a lockdown in this period was 3 hours and 21 minutes.

“Lockdowns for adverse weather and security and emergency reasons are routine across the prison system,” he said.

“Security and emergency lockdowns occur to manage incidents such as medical emergencies or when Ambulance Victoria are on site.”

Opposition Corrections spokesman David Southwick said Victorian prisons were “in crisis”.

“Locking prisoners in their cells due to staff shortages only makes the job more dangerous and it’s a direct result of Labor’s failure to manage corrections and protect frontline staff,” he said.

“This women’s facility is being run more like a pressure cooker than a prison with daily lockdowns, unsafe conditions, and exhausted staff.”

It comes after a damning no-confidence motion in Corrections Commissioner Larissa Strong.

A Justice department spokesman conceded that they had “recently experienced staffing pressures resulting in some lockdowns at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre”.

“We have implemented a range of measures to manage lockdowns and ensure that prisoners are able to access programs and services,” she said.

Asked whether security measures had recently been upgraded at Dame Phyllis Frost, she said: “Corrections Victoria has strong security measures in place at all prisons.”

Originally published as ‘North Korea’ style conditions behind bars for Victoria’s most dangerous women