Northern Territory lawyers say they are being repeatedly blocked from visiting their clients at Darwin Correctional Centre. The territory's ballooning prison population has been increasing pressure on corrections staff, who the union says often deny visits if they have safety concerns. The NT government has expanded the new adult prison in Berrimah to accommodate more than 300 prisoners.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Innocent or guilty?
00:05Territory courts are struggling to find out.
00:08Repeated cancellations of prison visits are causing backlogs in the courts and preventing
00:13access to justice for defendants.
00:16The whole of the justice system is simply inadequately resourced to deal with this huge
00:22increase in prisoners that we've seen.
00:25Nearly half of the territory's booming prison population are accused offenders who haven't
00:31been found guilty.
00:33But short staffing and record overcrowding at Darwin Correctional Centre has meant defence
00:39lawyers can't get inside to speak with their clients.
00:42The escalating saga played out in Darwin local court today, where defence lawyers vented
00:47their frustration at being unable to speak to their clients before representing them
00:52in court.
00:53Several lawyers told the court they've tried to attend scheduled meetings with their clients
00:57in Darwin prison, only to be knocked back at the door on multiple occasions.
01:01If they're not being legally represented because the jail can't accommodate visits, then the
01:07system does go into gridlock.
01:09The NT government says private prison guards hired from company G4S will alleviate pressure
01:16on correction staff at the prison.
01:18We also know that G4S, which is going to be another provider, is going to come to the
01:24territory by next week.
01:27The next stage of the plan, expanding the adult prison in Berrimah.
01:31This is now a 316 bed prison.
01:33This is the territory's third operational prison.
01:37It's a big step for corrections and it means we have so much more capacity.
01:41But legal advocates warn the government's tough on crime strategy won't stop re-offending.
01:47We do know that incarceration, that the model we have, is the most expensive and least effective
01:54way of dealing with crime.
01:59Territory lawyers trying to keep up in a system plagued by dysfunction.