Western Australia’s prison system is “nearing functional collapse”, with continual lockdowns, people sleeping on mattresses and a significant increase in violent incidents, an independent inspector has found.
The WA Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services (OICS) has issued “show cause notices” to the state Department of Justice and the Corrections Ministers over the conditions at Hakea Prison, Casuarina Prison and Melaleuca Women’s Prison.
This means the inspector believes there is a serious risk at these prisons to security, control, safety, care or welfare of incarcerated people and staff, or that those being held there are being subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
“This is a decisive moment and a time of danger and great difficulty,” the OICS report said.
“The problems we are seeing in the WA prison system are such that system level reform can no longer be delayed or deferred and must be urgently addressed with clear and measurable reforms.
“The adult custodial system is operating in a sustained state of unsafe failure, driven by unprecedented population growth and chronic workforce instability that have far outpaced the system’s capacity to respond.”
The OICS has called on the state government to commit to and provide money for system-level reforms to address the concerns at the prisons.
The inspector said that there were “deteriorating conditions” at the three prisons that led to a “system-wide breakdown”.
“The inspector identified serious risks to the safety, security and welfare of prisoners, with conditions in some cases potentially amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” the OICS report said.
The increasing number of people in custody and severe shortages of workers has led to overcrowding, regular lockdowns and a lack of access to services in WA prisons.
There has been a 37 per cent increase in the number of people in prison in WA from January 2023 to February this year.
This has meant that there are more people incarcerated than there is space in the state’s prisons, leading to up to 200 people sleeping on mattresses on cell floors, and many others in triple bunking cells.
The time out of cell that people in these prisons are getting has declined rapidly in recent years.
People held at Hakea received seven hours out of their cells in December last year, and this has dropped to 5.24 hours as of February.
At Melaleuca, people got 5.36 hours out of their cells per day in February, and in Casuarina they only got just over 2.5 hours in the same month.
In the last year, the number of lockdowns at Casuarina have doubled.
A huge amount of planned visits to these prisons are also being cancelled.
At Hakea and Casuarina, about half of all booked social visits were cancelled. At Melalucua, only a third of planned visits are going ahead.
Incidents of force being used against people in prison have increased in all of the prisons, as have self-harm incidents.
In response to the report, the WA Department of Justice said the government was “actively addressing these matters as part of system-wide reforms”.
This includes “coordinated operational, workforce and infrastructure measures to manage prisoner population, capacity and staffing challenges identified in the report”.
The increasing number of people in custody and severe shortages of workers has led to overcrowding, regular lockdowns and a lack of access to services in WA prisons.
There has been a 37 per cent increase in the number of people in prison in WA from January 2023 to February this year.
This has meant that there are more people incarcerated than there is space in the state’s prisons, leading to up to 200 people sleeping on mattresses on cell floors, and many others in triple bunking cells.
The time out of cell that people in these prisons are getting has declined rapidly in recent years.
People held at Hakea received seven hours out of their cells in December last year, and this has dropped to 5.24 hours as of February.
At Melaleuca, people got 5.36 hours out of their cells per day in February, and in Casuarina they only got just over 2.5 hours in the same month.
In the last year, the number of lockdowns at Casuarina have doubled.
A huge amount of planned visits to these prisons are also being cancelled.
At Hakea and Casuarina, about half of all booked social visits were cancelled. At Melalucua, only a third of planned visits are going ahead.
Incidents of force being used against people in prison have increased in all of the prisons, as have self-harm incidents.
In response to the report, the WA Department of Justice said the government was “actively addressing these matters as part of system-wide reforms”.
This includes “coordinated operational, workforce and infrastructure measures to manage prisoner population, capacity and staffing challenges identified in the report”.
