The state government's decision to install air conditioning in all cells at Western Australia's hottest jail is long overdue, according to Indigenous leaders.
The State Government announced on Wednesday it would expand air conditioning in all cells at Roebourne Regional Prison, in response to community concerns about the impact of heat on prisoners, the majority of whom are Indigenous.
Temperatures climbed to to 50.5 degrees in the Pilbara town last summer, just 0.2 degrees under the hottest temperature ever recorded in Australia.
Lawyers and former inmates have likened the conditions inside the prison during a heatwave to torture.
The expansion, expected to cost more than $10 million, comes after years of campaigning from human rights advocates and lawyers.
However, the air conditioning is not expected to be installed in all cells until 2023-24.
'It's coming into summer now'
Yindjibarndi elder Tootsie Daniels said the decision was long overdue.
"It's about time," she said.
Ms Daniels said she welcomed the air conditioning expansion, but was disappointed some prisoners would have to sweat through at least one more summer in a region notorious for its heatwaves.
"It's coming into summer now, it's getting hotter now," she said.
"The government has to understand these seasonal changes, you really shouldn't wait for the next financial year."
Deaths in Custody Watch Committee deputy chairman and Ballardong-Yued man Desmond Blurton agreed it should not have taken this long for the government to make the commitment.
"It's fantastic that the government are doing things that should be done on behalf of the Roebourne community, because [that] community suffers a lot," he said.
"This is wrong that it has taken this long to get it sorted for our mob up there. It's a start but there's a lot more that needs to be done."
Mr Blurton said moving forward, he wanted to see elders more involved in monitoring the jail's conditions.
"We need to look after our mob to make sure that they are living, especially when it comes to incarceration, because that world is hidden from us, from our elders and from our Aboriginal community, that's wrong," he said.
Mr Blurton agreed the state government should install the air conditioning before the coming summer.
Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston told the ABC there would be measures in place to help prisoners in cells without air conditioners cope with the hot temperatures.
"We continue to allow in-cell fans, we continue to allow cold water and ice and other mitigation strategies for managing the heat and we're very pleased that we can now get the engineering work done to install this air conditioning," he said.
