08/02/2022
PEOPLE IN PRISON ARE DYING FROM COVID: RELEASE THEM NOW!
ACTION: Thursday February 10, 12.30 -1.30 pm
WHERE: Corrective Services NSW Office, 20 Lee Street, Haymarket
CONTACT: Brett Collins: 0438 705 003
Adele Graham: 0474 312 613
The death of a 48-year-old woman in Junee private prison was announced by private operator GEO on Saturday February 5. Although she'd actually passed on January 29.
On January 26, a 47 year old man died in his cell after he'd tested positive to COVID-19.
Prisons in NSW and across Australia are rife with COVID-19. Correctional facilities and Corrective Services NSW are not releasing accurate information about cases.
Brett Collins, spokesperson for Justice Action, said "COVID is all through the prisons. We know 50% of people in Alice Springs prison have COVID - some 400 people. NT prisons are awash with the deadly disease. We need people in prisons safely released."
Adele Graham, family member and advocate of people in prison, said, "We've had at least three riots in the last two months as people in prison are driven to the edge. We know people in prison who have COVID are getting inadequate health treatment, in
contravention of the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights (in which Prisoners are NOT exempt).
People are suffering horribly, with conditions inside described as being torture by current and recently released prisoners. They are our loved ones.
We aren’t given adequate time to talk to our family members inside prison. We aren't given access to truthful information regarding their welfare. We need them safely released."
At any given time there are around 13,000 people incarcerated in the NSW prison system, with 26,000 people coming through the system within a year. Three of the state’s 36 correctional centers are privately operated, including Sydney's Parklea prison: the site of the largest prison COVID outbreak in Australia during the Delta outbreak.
People in prisons who have COVID need acute care. Families have reported that loved ones weren’t tested until days after developing symptoms. People in prison who tested positive for COVID have been locked in their cells 24 hours a day, and only offered showers once every three days. Some didn’t see sunlight for 2 to 3 weeks.
People in prisons are fearing for their lives. Prison should not be a death sentence. The state government needs to make prisons safe. COVID should not be an excuse to brutalise people in prisons and deprive them of their civil liberties.
People in prisons are being released across the world. People in prison have been released in Victoria. NSW should be doing the same.
We are protesting the lack of action by Commissioner for Correctional Services Kevin Corcoran, as he has the power to release people in prison.
DEMANDS
1. Safely release people in prisons and youth detention centers, beginning with First Nations people and people with physical and mental health conditions
2. Support inmates being released with the provision of safe transportation, quarantining where necessary, safe accommodation, access to financial support and health services, as well as First Nations cultural support via adequately resourced Aboriginal community-controlled organisations
3. Provide safe and informed access to COVID-19 vaccinations
4. Publish data on vaccination rates in prisons and youth detention centres
5. Stop new admissions to prisons
6. Suspend prison transfers
7. Increase access to telephone and video information communication technology in cells, so they can regularly contact loved ones and professional support people, as a response to the cessation of visits
8. Test inmates before release and provide them with proper health care on return to community
9. Cease implementing whole-of-prison lockdowns as a control strategy
10. Provide transparency in reporting prison lockdown conditions, including the use of solitary confinement and measures being taken to ensure wellbeing
11. Provide community-based hospital care for people infected with COVID-19 in prisons
*This is a COVID-safe action. Please attend only if you're fully vaccinated and avoid doing so if symptomatic.
