Lawyers attack jail delays

LAWYERS are experiencing delays in seeing prisoners at the Townsville jail, which is causing a backlog in cases and putting a financial strain on the public and courts, the Queensland Law Society says.

The society has said it is an increasingly common problem for defence counsel in Townsville, citing overcrowding and resourcing as factors.

Defence solicitor Zoe Navarro has written to the industry body, amid the worsening problem. She puts it down to overcrowding in prisons, which is leading to more incidents in prisons and subsequent shutdowns.

Ms Navarro said it was particularly bad during the period of industrial action by prison officers, who frequently walked off the job over a pay dispute with management.

Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts said it was a statewide issue.

“They are not doing it deliberately to frustrate the court process, it simply comes down to a question of resources and priorities,” he said.

“What we need, quite frankly across the board, but particularly in Townsville, is better efforts to ensure those people who are to appear in court have proper access to their lawyers in a timely way.”

Mr Potts said he had fielded concerns from Townsville solicitors who were unable to access clients in a timely fashion and said that visits were being cancelled. “All of those things have led systemically to a period of time to the courts being delayed because lawyers have been unable to get timely instructions,” he said.

He said the danger of that was it could often lead to injustices, as a person could stay in prison longer than a court would order because of the delay in getting instructions at a cost to the community. He said there was also a greater cost on the court as it was having to adjourn matters rather than deal with them.

Queensland Corrective Services confirmed it was aware of issues raised by the Queensland Law Society but said there had been no formal issues raised regarding access at the Townsville prison.