Just days out from the planned opening of Darwin's new youth prison, two teenagers have escaped from custody in Alice Springs. Meantime, the fall-out from Corrections' emergency measures to relieve watch house overcrowding is spilling over into the courts.
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00:00Fresh from a multi-million dollar facelift, the Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre,
00:07now the site of a breakout.
00:09Police believe the teens climbed onto the roof and fled in a car,
00:14last seen on Ilpapa Road, prompting an extensive search.
00:18The Labor Government promised Territorians that a new youth justice facility
00:22in Alice Springs would cost in the order of $13 million.
00:26That blew out to somewhere closer to $40 million
00:29and just a few months into that facility being opened,
00:32can't even keep prisoners in it.
00:34Some believe the escape is a foreseeable reaction
00:37to a plan to move all Central Australian teens in custody to Darwin.
00:42Those kids would be so worried.
00:44They have no idea what's going to happen.
00:46Like, can you imagine being like 12, 13, 14, 15
00:49and, you know, thinking, oh, I'm going to be sent away from my family.
00:53The plan, part of a crisis response to overcrowding in the adult detention system.
00:59Record numbers of adult prisoners are being sent to the Darwin Police Watch House
01:03and the Darwin and Alice Springs jails to free up space in watch houses elsewhere.
01:09Darwin youth will be transferred from the former adult jail in Berrimah
01:13to a new youth facility next week, making space for adult prisoners.
01:18And from early December, they'll be joined by Alice Springs youth detainees
01:22so Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre can be repurposed for adult female inmates.
01:28In the meantime, inside Darwin Correctional Centre,
01:31prisoners are sleeping on mattresses on the floor.
01:34It's like a pressure cooker situation in there and, you know, it's hot.
01:38At this time of year, it's really hot.
01:40Today, prison conditions formed the basis for a number of bail applications
01:44heard in the Darwin local court.
01:46Lawyers for one man with serious medical issues
01:49telling the court he held concerns for his life
01:52with the prisons in a state of what they described as absolute chaos.
01:56In a separate application, lawyers said a woman had been set upon
02:00with rising tensions between existing Darwin prisoners
02:03and new women brought up from Alice Springs.
02:06The government promising to address the drivers of crime
02:09by kicking off consultation on a mandatory alcohol rehabilitation plan next year.