An independent politician has raised human rights concerns with the United Nations over "terrible" jail conditions in the Northern Territory. More than 400 people have been locked up since the Country Liberal Party won the NT election in August, with a record 2,658 people now held in correctional facilities. The NT government says measures including mass transfers of prisoners and repurposing of correctional facilities will soon alleviate overcrowding.
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00:00With record numbers of inmates inside territory prisons and police watch houses, the NT government
00:08is under increasing pressure to deliver.
00:11Our master plan is working well moving forward to make sure that there's going to be enough
00:16space for corrections to house prisoners right across the Northern Territory.
00:21The overflow placing corrections staff and police officers under increasing strain.
00:26400 prisoners is a 20% growth to the prison population to the Northern Territory in the
00:31space of four or five months.
00:33That would stretch any corrections service around the country.
00:36Reports of the conditions inside, prompting human rights concerns from independent politician
00:42Yingyao Gwulia.
00:43In a statement, Mr Gwulia said,
00:45I have written to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to come
00:50and visit the Northern Territory because I think we need to have oversight of what is
00:54happening in our jails right now.
00:57The ABC has seen an email shared among legal services appealing for donations to buy bottled
01:02water for inmates inside the Alice Springs Police Watch House due to concerns over hygiene
01:07and access to safe drinking water, with some lawyers reportedly donating up to $250.
01:13They say clients can only access water from a bubbler above an open toilet inside the
01:18overcrowded cells.
01:20The bubbler that you're referring to is a standard cell design.
01:24It has a stainless steel toilet with a bubbler on top that's common in custodial facilities.
01:30We provide water, we provide food, we provide clothing, we provide laundry every day.
01:35The NT government says 48 more beds will become available at the repurposed Berrima prison
01:41in coming days.