Six prisoners remain in NT watch houses after report exposes 'inhumane' conditions
The NT government says it has all but ended the practice of using police station cells to house inmates who would normally be in prisons. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)
In short:
Cells in Northern Territory police watch houses, once plagued by chronic overcrowding and "inhumane" conditions, now hold six prisoners in total.
The announcement comes less than a week after a report calling for the inmates to be removed was tabled in parliament.
What's next?
While the government has expanded the territory's prison capacity, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency has questioned how long the reduced reliance on watch houses will last.
Days after the Northern Territory's prison watchdog raised the alarm about "inhumane" conditions in overcrowded police cells, the government says six inmates remain in watch houses.
Police station cells have been used to hold hundreds of longer-term inmates for the last three years due to severe prison overcrowding, which reached a crisis point earlier this year when more than 200 inmates were reportedly held in watch houses.
In a report tabled in parliament last week, acting Ombudsman Bronwyn Haack called on the NT government to urgently remove all prisoners from watch houses, describing the conditions as "unreasonable and oppressive".
Prisoners held in the Alice Springs watch house in October used rolled-up blankets as makeshift pillows. (Supplied: NT Ombudsman)
Ms Haack's report found prisoners detained for up to two months were denied access to basic rights amid severe overcrowding and inhumane toilet access, leading one inmate to report they "thought I would die in there".
The report noted that although reliance on police station cells began falling in March, there were "still significant numbers of Territory prisoners being held in various watch houses throughout the NT" as late as September.
On Tuesday the Department of Corrections confirmed there were four prisoners being held in the Katherine watch house and two in Alice Springs.
At the Palmerston watch house 17 prisoners were crammed into a single cell, with one forced to sleep in between two toilets. (Supplied: NT Ombudsman)
A spokesperson said corrections officers "exited police watch houses in November" following the completion of the department's infrastructure master plan, which added 646 prison beds at the Berrimah Correctional Centre and 96 beds in Alice Springs.
The NT government plans to build additional prison infrastructure to deal with the jurisdiction's rising prisoner numbers, but according to a Treasury report also tabled in Parliament last week, those plans will "likely impact budget forecasts" and the costs are not yet known.
'This is not a one-off'
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency chief executive Ben Grimes said he was concerned the reduced reliance on watch houses would only be temporary.
He rejected the Country Liberal Party (CLP) government's claim that poor watch house conditions reflected "years of neglect by Labor".
Ben Grimes says "it's very, very hard to imagine that this type of situation is actually happening in Australia in 2025" without seeing it for yourself. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)
"There have been issues in watch houses in the past but it has significantly and noticeably increased under this government as a direct result of their policies and legislative changes," Mr Grimes said.
In her report Ms Haack noted the department had accepted her recommendation to remove prisoners from watch houses and said it was "committed to reducing reliance" on them, while NT Police were "strongly supportive".
But Mr Grimes urged the government to commit to ending the practice of using watch houses for medium and long-term detention altogether.
"Unless you're actually in one of those rooms … or seeing the conditions and hearing the stories firsthand, it's very, very hard to imagine that this type of situation is actually happening in Australia in 2025," he said.
"This is not a one-off, this has become a normal pattern of what it looks like in the territory.
"Just in the last six months … 400 children were held in the conditions described [in the report]."