Australian Associated Press
Hundreds of prison officers have
walked off the job in South Australia demanding the government
scrap plans for a new "super prison".
The state's prisons went into lockdown on Tuesday as members
of the Public Service Association (PSA) rallied outside
Parliament House in a bid to stop their jobs being transferred
to a new facility to be built at Murray Bridge, about 80km
southeast of Adelaide.
The state government is proposing to build the "super jail" to
replace Yatala Labour Prison, the Adelaide Women's Prison and
the Adelaide Remand Centre.
The PSA is instead calling for existing facilities to be
upgraded or for new prisons to be built at existing sites in
Adelaide.
PSA chief industrial officer Peter Christopher said studies
had shown the hundreds of men and women expected to relocate
to Murray Bridge would not do so.
"Any plan that forces workers to travel an extra three hours
daily will create significant problems," he said.
"The women's prison and Yatala are both old and overcrowded.
"The new prison is not due to come online for five years and
we have an overcrowding crisis in Adelaide prisons at the
moment and any proposal that has a five year delay in it begs
the question about how we are going to survive in the
meantime," he told AAP.
South Australia's prison system came under fire last year
following a riot at Port Augusta prison involving 39 inmates,
some of whom climbed onto the jail's roof and used mattresses
to display messages alleging ill treatment and overcrowding.
Several prisoners were forced to sleep in yard areas, because
of the poor state of some cells.
The South Australian Council of Social Service, on behalf of
Offenders Aid Rehabilitation Services of SA, last year
prepared a report that showed the government could expect an
increase of 120 prisoners a year.
"The other problem you have is that if this is the only prison
for Adelaide ... then you are going to finish up with
situations like people from rival bikie clubs being all in the
same prison," Mr Christopher said.
"They're creating a disaster situation."
He said the high number of families moving to be near loved
ones who were transferred to the Murray Bridge facility would
put strain on public housing in the small South Australian
community.
A skeleton staff supervised the prisoners while Tuesday's
rally took place.