00:00Innocent or guilty?
00:05Territory courts are struggling to find out.
00:08Repeated cancellations of prison visits are causing backlogs in the courts and preventing
00:13access to justice for defendants.
00:16The whole of the justice system is simply inadequately resourced to deal with this huge
00:22increase in prisoners that we've seen.
00:25Nearly half of the territory's booming prison population are accused offenders who haven't
00:31been found guilty.
00:33But short staffing and record overcrowding at Darwin Correctional Centre has meant defence
00:39lawyers can't get inside to speak with their clients.
00:42The escalating saga played out in Darwin local court today, where defence lawyers vented
00:47their frustration at being unable to speak to their clients before representing them
00:52in court.
00:53Several lawyers told the court they've tried to attend scheduled meetings with their clients
00:57in Darwin prison, only to be knocked back at the door on multiple occasions.
01:01If they're not being legally represented because the jail can't accommodate visits, then the
01:07system does go into gridlock.
01:09The NT government says private prison guards hired from company G4S will alleviate pressure
01:16on correction staff at the prison.
01:18We also know that G4S, which is going to be another provider, is going to come to the
01:24territory by next week.
01:27The next stage of the plan, expanding the adult prison in Berrimah.
01:31This is now a 316 bed prison.
01:33This is the territory's third operational prison.
01:37It's a big step for corrections and it means we have so much more capacity.
01:41But legal advocates warn the government's tough on crime strategy won't stop re-offending.
01:47We do know that incarceration, that the model we have, is the most expensive and least effective
01:54way of dealing with crime.
01:59Territory lawyers trying to keep up in a system plagued by dysfunction.
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