Corrections Officers at 30 prisons and dozens of court houses across NSW walked off the job after a prisoner who seriously assaulted a Corrections Officer, leaving him with a broken eye socket, broken nose, and missing teeth was released on bail in August.

Prisoners were locked down and trucks took prisoners involved in court proceedings back to their cells after Corrections Officers across the state voted to walk.
The Officers did not return until 7:00am the following day.

The assault occurred a number of weeks earlier at the John Morony Correctional Centre near Windsor.

PSA General Secretary, Stewart Little, says his members were seething.

“They were livid, a Corrections Officer gets bashed and left with life-changing injuries and the guy gets released back into the community without being charged? It’s outrageous,” said Mr Little.

“Every Corrections Officer in the state is forgoing a day’s pay today over this because the message they’re hearing is it’s OK for them to get bashed in their workplace.

“The gaols are full of DV offenders due to the Minns Government’s crackdown, but it means serious assaults inside prisons are up by 30 per cent.

“These DV offenders come in off the street, they’re drug affected, they’re on remand, and they cause problems, Corrections Officers need to be backed up by the rest of the justice system and the government otherwise this strike will only be the beginning.”

Around 6000 to 6600 adults, nearly half the state’s prison population are held on remand in NSW gaols.

The proportion is even higher for young people in detention, where about three-quarters of detainees are on remand.

Much of the increase in the remand population is due to a PSA CPSU NSW campaign for stricter conditions to be imposed on inmates charged with domestic violence offences.