Prison talks over staff shortages
THE state government will hold talks with the unions representing prison officers this week in a bid to find solutions to continuing staff shortages, Corrections Minister Elise Archer said.
Prison officers staged a two-hour stop work meeting on Monday after the assault of three officers in a shortstaffed section of the prison.
A lack of staff has caused a series of problems at the prison, including excessive lockdowns, a high level of overtime and increased workers compensation claims.
During an inspection of construction work at the new 156-bed Southern Remand Centre at Risdon on Tuesday, Ms Archer said she could not put a timeline on when minimum standards could be met.
“I don’t shy away from the challenges that exist in our Tasmanian prison system,” she said.
“We are tackling those issues as fast as we can but nobody can say that we haven’t as a government invested in our prison service.
“I’ll be meeting with both unions involved tomorrow to put some strategies to them to help relieve some of the capacity pressures that we’re experiencing.”
Ms Archer said lockdowns at the prison were sometimes necessary because of security issues.
“The usage of lockdowns is far more complicated than just saying it’s because of short staffing,” she said.
“We’re working towards providing the safest environment possible for our prisoners and our staff. I don’t take that lightly. And we are doing everything possible to address these issues.”
A recent report by the Custodial Inspector noted recruitment was barely keeping pace with staff attrition “with no contingency resources for unplanned leave and staff shortages”.
Opposition spokeswoman Ella Haddad said Risdon was “a pressure cooker ready to explode” because of staff shortages years in the making.
“The situation at Risdon prison is escalating daily,’’
Ms Haddad said. “We’re now hearing multiple reports that since the assault on prison officers last week, the situation is going from bad to worse.
“There are rolling lockdowns that are now happening for sometimes 24 hours for days on end, it’s completely unacceptable that the prison has to go into lockdown as much as they have been.”