Australia: 'huge frustration' as prison overcrowding sparks violence concerns

Staff at the state’s largest prison are meeting on Monday to address frustrations and fears over prisoner violence amid rapidly increasing overcrowding.

Queensland’s already over-capacity prisons have added another 500 inmates in just eight months despite a Palaszczuk government promise to address the problem.

Officers at another major Queensland prison have already called for better tools to stop prisoner assaults as concerns of violence grow across the state.

The moves come as promising water polo player Cole Miller’s killer Armstrong Renata and another prisoner from the Woodford Correctional Centre appeared in court on Wednesday to face two charges of assaulting corrective services officers, who were sent to hospital.

This was also on the back of a major incident at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre early this month.

A prisoner assaulted an officer trying to search his cell and prisoners in that unit and two nearby units became “non-compliant”, according to a Queensland Corrective Services spokesman.

A QCS source said prisoners in at least one unit had armed themselves with broken broomsticks.

Director of industrial services at the Together union, Michael Thomas, said overcrowding was a major concern because it was crippling many of the traditional prisoner control methods such as detention units.

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