The Queensland government is facing internal criticism of the state’s prison system, with Labor party rank and file members warned about instances of prisoners engaging in severe acts of self-harm and a growing number of inmates experiencing mental health issues.
Labor branch delegate and the daughter of state MP Bruce Saunders, Ashleigh Saunders, told the party’s weekend state conference workers at Queensland’s prisons are being exposed to extremely graphic and traumatising scenes.
“Workers are seeing extreme self-harm, [people] ripping their tendons out, self-cannibalisation, [people] slitting their own throats,” she said.
Speaking at Queensland Labor’s state conference in Mackay, Saunders called on the state government to urgently review prison infrastructure.
Saunders works as a lead organiser at the Together Union, which represents staff in correctional centres, but she was not speaking on the organisation’s behalf during the motion.
She said in Lotus Glen correctional centre, in far north Queensland, prisoners can only flush their toilets seven times a day and struggled with a lack of running water.
“In Queensland, there is not the infrastructure in jails to house prisoners with significant mental health problems,” Saunders said.
A 2018 report found 40% of Australian prisoners have a mental health condition and nearly a quarter are on psychiatric medication.
The state’s police minister, Mark Ryan, told Guardian Australia that “the unfortunate reality is that a very significant proportion of Queensland’s prison population suffers from a variety of psychological and mental health issues.”
“That is why Queensland Health in conjunction with Queensland Corrective Services provide a comprehensive range of treatments and programs in correctional centres across Queensland,” he said.
Ryan pointed to the construction of a new correctional centre near Gatton in the Lockyer Valley as a development that will reduce strain on the system.
“This new 1,500 bed facility will have a therapeutic based model of operation that will proactively seek to address the various mental health and addiction issues that so many prisoners experience,” he said.
The police minister said Queensland has increased the maximum penalty for anyone convicted of seriously assaulting a corrective services officer with aggravating circumstances to 14 years jail.
His comments come as a report released by the Justice Reform Initiative (JRI) last week called for the government to significantly expand community-led programs that can successfully break the cycle of incarceration.
Executive director at the JRI, Dr Mindy Sotiri, said Queensland has “only seen a piecemeal approach to resourcing, expanding, and evaluating” community-led approaches and programs.
“This longstanding approach to justice has resulted in dramatically increasing prison populations, skyrocketing costs for Queensland taxpayers and thousands of people cycling through a prison system that fails to rehabilitate, deter reoffending, or prioritise community safety in the long term,” she said.
“This is a system in crisis. It is time to acknowledge we cannot imprison our way to a safer society.”
Resourcing is not the only issue plaguing Queensland’s prisons, according to advocates. Health experts have criticised the Queensland government for being the only Australian state that does not provide condoms to prisoners, favouring “ideology” over “evidence”.
Concerns have also been raised about the transmission of hepatitis C inside prisons, with advocates claiming the government has failed to provide inmates with access to harm reduction programs.
Ryan said there was a comprehensive maintenance program that ensured any infrastructure matters at any of Queensland’s corrections centres were dealt with in a timely manner, supported by record budget funding for maintenance and capital works.
• In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and ChildLine on 0800 1111. In the US, Mental Health America is available on 800-273-8255
