Frontline jobs and officer safety at risk by the NSW Government

In an attempt to save a few bucks, the NSW Government is putting at risk the safety of NSW prison officers by closing down jails, cutting prison officer jobs and privatising correctional facilities.

The move puts at risk the safety of prison officers across the state, despite this already being one of the toughest, cruelest and most dangerous jobs.

The harsh reality is that the same number of prisoners cannot be managed if there are 600 fewer prison officers without safety being compromised.

Prison guards already have one of the toughest, cruelest and most dangerous jobs and while they are willing to work with the government to find savings in the justice system, cutting frontline jobs and risking the safety of guards is not acceptable.

Full details of the Government's proposed cuts to jobs and prison facilities will not be known in full until close to the September budget, but it's known the Government plans to:

A needle exchange program in NSW prisons would send a message that drugs in jails are ok - and they're not!

Our government should focus on rehabilitating criminals, not giving inmates a weapon that they can use against guards or other prisoners. This puts the lives of everyone in the prison at risk of infection of deadly or incurable diseases like HIV and Hepatitis.

It's happened before; with one former NSW prison guard dying from HIV related complications after he contracted the disease in a needle stick attack while at work.

We need to work towards making it harder for prisoners to get their hands on drugs, not easier. A system that accepts drugs and injecting rooms in our jails is a system broken.

Let's tell our government that we want a safe workplace and we don't want injecting rooms in our jails.

Take action against needles in our jails.

A message from NSW prison officers