MEDIA RELEASE
Prison Lock Down Must End
10 February 2010
Tasmania’s peak social justice organisation, TasCOSS, has today strongly backed Corrections Minister Lisa Singh’s efforts to bring to an end the lock-down at Risdon Prison.
TasCOSS CEO Tom Muller said current conditions at Risdon Prison were deeply concerning.
“This is about basic human rights and I think any fair minded Tasmanian would agree that it is just not acceptable for medium security prisoners to be confined to their cells for up to 23 hours a day.”
“It creates unnecessary tension that only puts the health and wellbeing of both prisoners and prison staff at risk.”
“We respect the unions’ responsibility to ensure the workplace safety of their members but the lock-down has gone on now for 8-weeks and the State Government have clearly implemented a number of changes directly in response to the unions concerns.”
“It is now up to prison management and staff to work cooperatively on returning the prison to normal operations.”
Tom Muller, TASCOSS
