NT Prisons in crisis

More officers not the answer

Northern Territory Justice Minister Peter Toyne should resign immediately, says the Darwin-based Network Against Prohibition.

The NAP was commenting on recent claims that the NT prisons system was in crisis, and that the Prison Officers Association had “no confidence” in Mr Toyne or his Department of Justice.

While NAP says it agrees wholeheartedly with the association’s vote of no-confidence in Mr Toyne, it strongly disagrees with its publicly stated remedy to problems of overcrowding – more prison officers.

“NAP believes what every criminologist knows and what readily available statistics show – that prison is NOT a solution to crime, and nor does it rehabilitate offenders, genuine or otherwise,” group spokesperson Gary Meyerhoff said.

“Berrimah Prison has been overcrowded for months. But all that Toyne and the NT Government has done in response, is to ensure that it stays that way by jailing more and more people.

“A war on illicit drug users; targeting of the longgrass community; zero-tolerance policing of young people; and now threats to jail petrol-sniffers.

“Mr Toyne should resign immediately.”

In June, the Northern Territory News reported that inmate numbers at Berrimah had hit 433 - 20 over capacity. So crowded is it, a recreational room known as the Day Care Centre has been turned into a prison dormitory.

More than 80% of prisoners are indigenous people and the NT continues to have the highest rate of incarceration in Australia.

The NT Prison Officers Association has held stop-work meetings at Darwin and Alice Springs correctional centres where officers unanimously supported a vote of no confidence in Department of Justice Management.

Mr Meyerhoff also took the association to task for claiming in a full-page newspaper advertisement that, “…the prisons keep . . . people sent there by the courts away from you … and therefore . . . contribute to a safer society”.

“That is myth,” Mr Meyerhoff said.

“A significant number of people in the NT Correctional system are there for non-violent drug offences. These are victimless crimes – the offenders should not be in prison – and we certainly don’t need to be protected from them.”

The Network Against Prohibition has consistently called on the NT Labor Government to release all non-violent drug offenders from the prison system.

For more information, call Gary on 0415 16 2525 or visit http://www.napnt.org.

To read the full-page advertisement taken out by the NT Prison Officers Association click here.