Warning for prison swim

A PRISON officer has been reprimanded after she went swimming with inmates in a waterway, in a scene reminiscent of an episode in television show Orange is the New Black.

Caught out in March, the female officer was “counselled for poor decision-making” for the swimming episode near Numinbah Correctional Centre, which sits on a 700ha reserve on the Gold Coast Hinterland.

It’s understood the group went swimming in a nearby creek, with a Queensland Corrective Service spokesman confirming they went into a “natural water course”.

There were rumours the of- ficer had gone skinny-dipping with the prisoners, however the spokesman said the prisoners were in “normal prison attire”.

“An officer who was on secondment at Numinbah from another centre was counselled for poor decision-making following an incident in March where she went swimming with a group of prisoners,” the spokesman said.

“The officer was not skinnydipping and neither were the prisoners, who were clothed in normal prison attire.

“The officer has since returned to her substantive role.”

In US TV show Orange is the New Black prisoners run through an open fence and swim clothed in a lake, in a moment of freedom that is a break from the daily prison routine.

Numinbah Correctional Centre is a low-security centre, or prison farm, where prisoners can be sent at the end of their sentence to help adjust with rehabilitation and living back in the community.

Prisoners are given more freedoms than high-security jails and there are no wired fences.

A number on inmates have escaped or walked out of the facility in the past but have been recaptured by authorities within days.

The prison farm can hold about 130 female prisoners.

Among the highest profile former Numinbah is lesbian vampire killer Tracey Wigginton served part of her time there at the end of her jail term. She was released in 2012.