Watch houses repurposed as long-term prison cells as Country Liberal government claims ‘such is the nature of the mess we have inherited’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastPolice watch houses in the Northern Territory are being repurposed as long-term prison cells as record imprisonment numbers push the system to breaking point.There were 2,613 people locked up in the NT on Tuesday – more than 1% of the territory’s population of 255,100, according to the Department of Corrections.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading…Watch houses repurposed as long-term prison cells as Country Liberal government claims ‘such is the nature of the mess we have inherited’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastPolice watch houses in the Northern Territory are being repurposed as long-term prison cells as record imprisonment numbers push the system to breaking point.There were 2,613 people locked up in the NT on Tuesday – more than 1% of the territory’s population of 255,100, according to the Department of Corrections.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading…
Police watch houses in the Northern Territory are being repurposed as long-term prison cells as record imprisonment numbers push the system to breaking point.
There were 2,613 people locked up in the NT on Tuesday – more than 1% of the territory’s population of 255,100, according to the NT Department of Corrections.
By contrast, in Western Australia – the state with the next highest imprisonment rate – about 0.2% of the population is behind bars. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the NT incarceration rate is more than five times the national average.
New laws were enacted on Monday to ensure young people and adults who breach bail conditions, commit serious offences or repeatedly offend are not granted bail.
More than 250 people are being held in NT police watch houses, spilling over from overcrowded prisons unable to cope with a surge that is only expected to grow as tough new bail laws take effect this week.
Clancy Dane, the principal lawyer at Territory Criminal Lawyers, said conditions in police watch houses are “appalling”.
“Police watch houses are overcrowded, they’re oppressive, the lights stay on, the noise is constant. Prisoners complain that they don’t have privacy when they go to the toilet,” he said.
“That’s going to traumatise people … and it’s not going to make us any safer.”
The NT prison population has steadily increased since 2020, but rose sharply after the Country Liberal party was elected in August on a law and order platform and immediately moved to expand police powers.
This week a contingent of South Australian police officers arrived in Alice Springs to maintain an increased police presence in the troubled outback town and allow NT officers to return to the Top End.
The NT’s chief minister, Lia Finocchiaro, said the figures showed her party’s “tough on crime” approach was working.
“We’re seeing more people arrested and remanded, which means safer streets,” she told reporters on Monday.
But Finocchiaro conceded the rising prisoner numbers were pushing the correctional system to “breaking point”.
“Such is the nature of the mess we have inherited,” she said. “What we have is a corrections system that can barely contend with prisoner numbers, let alone rehabilitate prisoners.”
Erina Early, the secretary of the NT United Workers Union which represents corrections officers, said extended prison lockdowns and a reduction in prisoner programs had created a volatile environment.
“This means prisoners don’t receive any stimulation. This lack of stimulation leads to boredom, mischief, discontent, potential riots, increase[d] risk of officer assaults and prisoner-on-prisoner assaults,” she said.
Work is under way to add up to 1,000 beds to the NT prison system by 2028.
A spokesperson for the NT Department of Corrections said this would address the “urgent need” for increased prison capacity.
In the interim, Finocchiaro said the NT police watch house at Palmerston, on the outskirts of Darwin, had been repurposed for NT Corrections to hold prisoners “for the foreseeable future”.
The government has also reopened the former Berrimah adult jail – most recently called the Don Dale youth detention centre – to house 200 adult male prisoners by March.
Dane said the new bail laws may see children as young as 10 locked up for minor bail breaches. He gave an example of a young client who had been at the shops with family on her birthday.
She had no transport and it took 20 minutes to walk home with her elderly relatives. When she arrived, she was arrested by waiting police as she had arrived “two or three minutes late” on her curfew condition.
“Breaching bail can be a serious offence. It can be something that shows that a person’s not respecting the conditions of their bail, which are there to make us safer, but it can also be minor, trivial, conditional breaches,” Dane said.
The criminal lawyer said the only way to address crime in the long-term is by addressing socioeconomic factors such as housing, health and education.
“Locking more people up isn’t going to make us safer and it’s nothing to be proud of.”