Officials disagree jail is too crowded

QUEENSLAND Corrective Services have ruled out overcrowding as the cause of prisoners causing havoc at Lotus Glen Correctional Centre.

The jail near Mareeba has been placed in lockdown for extended periods three times in about a month due to prisoners climbing on to the roof.

The most recent was on Wednesday when a handcuffed prisoner escaped from staff while being escorted to the medical centre and made his way on to the roof before voluntarily coming down about three hours later.

A Queensland Corrective Services spokesman said police officers were investigating.

The spokesman said “staff do a good job of handling challenging situations of this nature” with many prisoners in their care subject to complex mental, social, physical and health needs.

“While that investigation is under way, it is inappropriate and unhelpful to make assumptions about what may have contributed to the incident, but at this stage there is no indication the size of the prison population had any bearing,” the spokesman said.

Together Union delegate John Stack said with 850 prisoners at the jail, incidents had become more frequent.

He said, not only were the incidents “a massive inconvenience”, they created a hostile environment for staff to be in.

“Part of going to work in a jail is looking after each other … but when there’s an increased risk of safety it becomes a lot more difficult,” he said. “We went through a ‘dry patch’ (of incidents occurring) but once the numbers built up it started again.”