Over a number of years, we have established there are significant, and in some places crisis-level pressures regarding staffing within Western Australian prisons. While custodial officer roles are often focused upon, we have also frequently highlighted these pressures within non-custodial business areas.
Staffing pressures arise due to various reasons, including:
- short- and long-term vacancies, such as those that occur due to an inability to recruit
- leave arrangements, particularly unplanned leave, and a lack of coverage for leave periods
- changes in demand, such as increases to the prisoner population that have been not forecast when establishing staffing levels
- funding arrangement limitations
- availability of regional housing.
The result of such pressures mean existing staff can become overworked, perceptions of safety shift, and workplace morale can significantly decline. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of further staffing pressures through resignations, sick leave, and workers’ compensation leave. Such pressures also significantly affect those people held in custody as the services and programs delivered to them by non-custodial staff are heavily impacted or reduced entirely.