00:00A new year approaches with no end in sight for the NT's prison population crisis, as
00:08jails hit an all-time high and still rising.
00:11We are in very high pressure and the numbers are through the roof and we are working hard
00:16to come up with solutions.
00:17All of our facilities are at maximum capacity and watch houses are full.
00:22In just over two months, 228 more people were jailed, 84 locked up in the five days since
00:28Christmas.
00:29Today's total prison population is the highest it's ever been, it's 2,598 and that's a significantly
00:37high number for the Northern Territory.
00:3924 prisoners yet to be sentenced were moved from Alice Springs to Darwin on Friday in
00:45a bid to free up beds in police watch houses, only for them to be filled again over the
00:50weekend.
00:51A short fall in prison officers starting to bite with education and treatment programs
00:56the first casualties.
00:57Everything gives eventually and for us that's things like education programs, if we can't
01:02deliver them at certain times of the day or week it might be issues around the right approach
01:08to treatment programs over time.
01:10The government's so-called prison master plan begins here at what used to be the Dondale
01:15Youth Detention Centre.
01:17It's now back to housing adult men with 106 recently moved into two blocks.
01:23With the government promising 3,000 new prison beds by 2028, the year of the next election,
01:29it has a New Year's message for those found breaking the law.
01:32If you order to go to a detention centre there will be a spot for you because keeping the
01:37community safe is our number one priority and I make no apologies for that because the
01:41community is unsafe right across the Northern Territory and we're elected on a clear mandate
01:45to fix that.
01:46Despite the holiday period there's no moment of rest for those on the prison's front line.
01:53For more UN videos visit www.un.org
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