00:00With record numbers of inmates inside territory prisons and police watch houses, the NT government
00:08is under increasing pressure to deliver.
00:11Our master plan is working well moving forward to make sure that there's going to be enough
00:16space for corrections to house prisoners right across the Northern Territory.
00:21The overflow placing corrections staff and police officers under increasing strain.
00:26400 prisoners is a 20% growth to the prison population to the Northern Territory in the
00:31space of four or five months.
00:33That would stretch any corrections service around the country.
00:36Reports of the conditions inside, prompting human rights concerns from independent politician
00:42Yingyao Gwulia.
00:43In a statement, Mr Gwulia said,
00:45I have written to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to come
00:50and visit the Northern Territory because I think we need to have oversight of what is
00:54happening in our jails right now.
00:57The ABC has seen an email shared among legal services appealing for donations to buy bottled
01:02water for inmates inside the Alice Springs Police Watch House due to concerns over hygiene
01:07and access to safe drinking water, with some lawyers reportedly donating up to $250.
01:13They say clients can only access water from a bubbler above an open toilet inside the
01:18overcrowded cells.
01:20The bubbler that you're referring to is a standard cell design.
01:24It has a stainless steel toilet with a bubbler on top that's common in custodial facilities.
01:30We provide water, we provide food, we provide clothing, we provide laundry every day.
01:35The NT government says 48 more beds will become available at the repurposed Berrima prison
01:41in coming days.
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