Justice Reform Initiative Media Release, 19 July 2024
The Tasmanian government must take urgent action to address the overuse of rolling lockdowns and isolation in Tasmanian prisons – following fresh condemnation from the state’s Custodial Inspector that these practices are causing significant harm to both adults and children’s long-term health and wellbeing.
In the latest Adult and Youth Health Care report, tabled in Parliament this week, the Office of the Custodial Inspector identified serious decline in mental health among the state’s adult and youth prison populations due to rolling lockdowns, a by-product of chronic staff shortages, and recommended an immediate overhaul to improve the mental and physical health conditions inside prison facilities.
In a letter to Premier Jeremy Rockliff from June 2023, one young person at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre – which is yet to be given a firm closure date despite a commitment to shut down the centre deemed not fit for purpose – described being locked down as being ‘like dogs at the dogs home’.
Justice Reform Initiative executive director Dr Mindy Sotiri said conditions inside Tasmanian prisons were increasing the risk of reoffending while applying added pressure on police, the courts and health-related institutions.
“The Custodial Inspector’s findings reaffirm what we know is an incredibly distressing situation for adults and children.” Dr Sotiri said.
“We are funnelling far too many people into harmful prison settings when all of the evidence shows us that prisons fail to address the social drivers of incarceration. When prisons are in perpetual lockdowns, mental health issues are exacerbated, people become traumatised and disconnected, and the risk of reoffending increases.”
Tasmania spends more than $117 million each year locking up adults and children, with the second highest cost per adult prisoner per day in Australia.
More than two-thirds of people in prison in Tasmania have been there before, and 33% are being held on remand – and both those figures are rising.
The report highlighted the “increased frustration and irritability, anger, depressive symptoms, and a general decline in mental health and wellbeing” caused by solitary confinement and rolling lockdowns in Tasmanian facilities, which are exacerbated among those already experiencing mental and physical health conditions.
“The evidence clearly shows that this is a system in crisis, failing to meet the needs of the adults and children imprisoned or the staff who work there,” Dr Sotiri said.
“There is an urgent need to recognise the failure of imprisonment in reducing crime and reoffending, which is exacerbated by harmful practices such as rolling lockdowns, and instead focus on providing support and resources, both in out and of prisons, that offer opportunities for a better future.”
The Justice Reform Initiative welcomed the report’s recommendations and once again called for the immediate closure of the Ashley Youth Detention Centre in accordance with the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings.
“Any delay will risk further damaging the lives of children and putting them at risk of life-long involvement in a system that will not only fail to give them the support they need, but may also subject them to long-term harm,” Dr Sotiri said.
Media contact: Amy Price 0437 027 156
The Initiative respectfully acknowledges and supports the current and longstanding efforts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to reduce the numbers of Indigenous people incarcerated in Australia and, importantly, the leadership role which Indigenous-led organisations continue to play on this issue. We also acknowledge the work of many other individuals and organisations seeking change, such as those focused on the rate of imprisonment for women, people with mental health issues, people with disability and others.