Jail’s a pain for officers
Barwon Prison paperwork reveals a worker injured every three days
MORE than 250 staff injuries have been reported at Barwon Prison in the past 2½ years, internal documents reveal.
Prison workers have reported injuries every three to four days on average since the beginning of 2016, documents obtained by the Geelong Advertiser under Freedom of Information laws show.
The injuries range from the serious, a fractured skull following a prisoner attack, to the more minor, including “bruising” sustained while making a coffee and a “joint disorder” after slipping on raw sausage meat.
The heavily-redacted Department of Justice documents show there were 252 staff injuries at the Lara prison between January 1, 2016 and May 28, 2018.
The most common causes of injuries included occupational violence (38), manual handling (37), slips, trips and falls (34), restraining person (34) and physical assault (12).
More detailed worker injury documents obtained from WorkSafe listed 86 claims reported in the same 2½-year period.
Notably, 16 of the injury claims related to “mental stress factors”, including one for “bullying sexual harassment (verbal) intimidation, low mood anxiety insom” in 2018, one for “exposed to bullying/mobbing 5 months, affected mentally, anxiety depress” in 2017 and one for “bullying/harassment by colleague” in 2016.
WorkCover Incident Notification Forms provide more insight into some of the major worker injuries.
About 6.30pm on February 13 last year one guard was hospitalised following a violent prisoner attack.
“A [redacted] male guard was punched in the left eye causing a fractured skull to the left of his nose. IP taken to hospital by another staff member where he was admitted and may require surgery,” the report noted.
On April 26, 2016, two prison officers had “human faeces thrown over them by a prisoner. One officer has had some enter his mouth. Concerns about hepatitis exposure”, according to one report.
The WorkSafe reports also reveal some more trivial injuries, including those sustained while “wearing new department issued footwear”, “continuous use of R hand — turning keys, writing files, using keyboard”, “walking work dog, stopped to pick up dog fasces (sic), dog pulled”, “gym workout” and one occasion where a worker “slipped on raw sausage meat”.
Corrections Victoria spokesman Michael Newhouse said the safety of all prison staff was paramount.
“In addition to comprehensive training for staff and careful analysis of risks, security measures include CCTV, body-worn cameras and, where required, capsicum spray,” Mr Newhouse said.
“Corrections Victoria has clear incident reporting and recording procedures. We encourage staff to report any incident no matter how minor to ensure a safe and secure workplace.
“This includes both inci-