OVERSTAYS IN THE ‘WATCHY’

THIS is the Gold Coast and not some ThirdWorld dive where human rights and basic living standards are not up to speed.

But you could be forgiven for thinking the latter if you have ever stepped inside the Southport Watchhouse holding cells or had a relative or loved one have the misfortune of ending up there.

It is meant to be a temporary holding cell for people awaiting processing in the legal system.

It can be home to anyone from detoxing drunks sleeping off a big night out and minor offenders flirting with being a public nuisance to the lowest of the low, including accused rapists and murderers.

The watchhouse is a windowless, cramped place so cut off from the outside world that defence lawyers often say bewildered clients emerging from its darkness wonder what day it is.

Now a leading defence lawyer fears extended stays in the “watchy” of up to a fortnight – anything more than three weeks is against official recommendations – is because of prison overcrowding.

Ironically, it is claimed some kept in the watchhouse for extended periods are gagging to be sent to prison because at least there they get a cell, proper meals, a toothbrush and access to physical activity.

Many readers will not give two hoots about the plight of people doing time in the “watchy”, figuring if you have ended up in there then it is your own fault.

But the problem is very small-time offenders and in some cases your average law-abiding citizen who got a bit rowdy out on the town can end up in there.

It is no picnic, that’s for sure, and a place petty offenders end up alongside hardened criminals.

Rank and file police threaten people they arrest or are considering arresting with a stint in the “watchy” if they don’t calm down or acquiesce.

The Bulletin has seen police do this, telling people “watchy, watchy”. No doubt in many cases it acts as a suitable deterrent to someone carrying on like a pork chop.

But it is unacceptable in a First-World country and visitor capital to have smalltime offenders languishing in the claimed “appalling” conditions of the watchhouse for any longer than they need to be.

And if prison overcrowding is what is causing that as a lawyer has claimed, then our political leaders need to do something about the equally appalling statistic in today’s Bulletin which shows a 58 per cent skyrocketing in prison inmate numbers in Queensland in the past six years.