Lack of compassion for hottest prison in Pilbara
AIR-conditioning will not be installed at Roebourne Prison where inmates sleep, often on mattresses on the floor, in 35C-plus temperatures and eat meals in unhygienic conditions.
WA Inspector of Custodial Services Eamon Ryan found though improvements were made since his visit in 2016, inmates remained at risk of heat stress at the Pilbara prison 43km east of Karratha.
On March 10 last year, he said Roebourne recorded its hottest day in March at 48.1C: “While we inspected Roebourne Prison in the cooler month of May (of 2019), the memory of the hottest months was still keen in the minds of prisoners we spoke to, and we received many complaints from staff and prisoners about the unbearable heat. Prisoners were also upset that air-conditioning had recently been installed in staff toilets in the units, but not in any prisoner living areas.”
The average night time temperature in cells without air-conditioning then was 33C, and typically over 35C in the hours before midnight.
“Such temperatures were found to be not just uncomfortable but posed a significant risk to prisoner health,” he said, adding, “prisoners told us of having to endure prickly heat rash for months over summer. We have, in the past, heard arguments that men and women in the Pilbara are used to these conditions. While this may be the case, they are unlikely to be routinely locked in a small room with one or more other adults for 12.5 hours or more each night”.
The estimated cost of installing air-conditioners is nearly $2.5 million with recurrent funding of $310,00 a year.
In the weeks before Mr Ryan’s inspection, StreetWise asked Corrective Services Minister Fran Logan whether he was concerned over the intolerable conditions prisoners faced and what steps were being taken to improve them.
He refused to comment.
Greens MLC Alison Xamon said the Government’s lack of action was a human rights violation for the more than 200 men at Roebourne. Only women had air-conditioners.
According to the department, of the 214 prisoners at Roebourne, 12 were female. Seventy-nine per cent of people identified as Aboriginal. In response Mr Ryan’s report, the department says the heat risk has been assessed as medium, “requiring ongoing monitoring of control effectiveness”, and not a priority. To manage the risk, it has introduced ice machines throughout the prison, held activities in the air-conditioned recreation hall and installed shade structures and trees.
Though he commended the department, Mr Ryan said, “we stand firm on the need for appropriate climate controlled accommodation for people in custody at Roebourne”.
Roebourne Prison receives people sentenced, remanded or returned to prison in the Pilbara region. It only holds medium and minimum security male and female prisoners and maximum security prisoners on a short-term basis.
When the inspector visited, there were 201 inmates at Roebourne: “In total, 15 prisoners, nine men and six women, slept on mattresses on the floor that night. It is common for 10 or more prisoners to be sleeping on cell floors at any one time.”
He found too many prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor despite the installation of 20 extra beds since his previous inspection four years ago.
“Women were particularly crowded with numbers often exceeding its 14-bed capacity. On May 16, there were six women sleeping on a floor mattress.”
Though more than half of prisoners the inspector surveyed said the bedding was satisfactory, many complained pillows and mattresses had been stained by sweat over the summer months. Blankets were wiry and reminded inmates of those used in piece lockups and children’s homes.
Prisoners also were having to, “eat all their meals, on their laps in units, in unhygienic conditions”, with men’s yards, “frequently invaded by corellas and galahs which left unhygienic droppings”, while broken flyscreens allowed rodents and snakes to enter prisoners’ cells.
The report also described as, “highly unusual”, the practice of letting a new prisoner to, “wander around the yard and find themselves a bed or floor space”. The prison also had no drug sniffer dogs.
Mr Ryan said he was disappointed the Department continued to reject recommendations to address the health risks created by heat in cells: “This is an ongoing issue that will not go away. While we acknowledge the incremental mitigation measures that have been undertaken to date, the reality is that the level of heat which builds up in cells is unacceptable, and a real risk to prisoners’ health and welfare.”