Australia: prison scandal, crackdown exposes crooked jail guards

Almost one prison guard a week has been sacked or has quit before they were forced out as part of a crackdown on corruption and serious misconduct inside WA jails. Figures provided by the Department of Corrective Services show 25 guards lost their jobs in the first six months of this financial year. Another 12 are suspended for offences that were likely to result in their dismissal if proved.

The half-year figures represent a significant increase on the previous full financial year when 16 DCS employees lost their jobs. Nine were forced out in 2014-15.

Drug dealing, sexual misconduct, violence towards inmates, misusing prison computers and crimes committed outside prison such as domestic violence were some of the offences that guards — including youth custodial officers — were investigated over.

Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis welcomed the results, claiming the figures were a “vindication” of his efforts to push through controversial anti-corruption measures which he said were helping to clean up the jail system. Those measures included mandatory drug and alcohol testing, introducing a police-style “loss of confidence” process to make it easier to sack staff suspected of corruption and re-forming a joint police and prisons task force to investigate crimes behind bars.

“It is not acceptable at any level for people who are paid by the taxpayer to help reform prisoners to be involved in inappropriate activities,” Mr Francis said.

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