00:00inhumane with the potential to kill that's how a group of churches doing weekly outreach at the
00:09Alice Springs Correctional Centre have described its hot and overcrowded conditions in a letter
00:15sent in March to Breitling MP Josh Burgoyne after a run of hot days the church has called
00:20for better cooling and ventilation inside the prison ahead of summer but Mr Burgoyne says he
00:26never received their letter and that the cost to air-condition the jail would be twenty million
00:30dollars but if what you're telling me is that the conditions out of the jail mean that people do
00:35not want to go back out there I think that's a positive thing we do not want people to continue
00:40to re-offend and end up in our prisons one signatory to the letter says after meeting Mr Burgoyne
00:46they're still concerned conditions like heat stress cold stress they can't be viewed as additional
00:52punishment so the lines that have been used that if they don't want those conditions they
00:56shouldn't offend I find horrific and inhumane this is not what we ask our government to do a prison
01:02guard who's spoken to the ABC on the condition of anonymity says heat isn't the only issue putting
01:07the lives of staff and prisoners at risk they'd seen 17 people in a cell described conditions as
01:13inhumane in a place supposed to be for rehabilitation they were surprised not to see more serious injury
01:19more often the NT government says an assessment of ventilation found the need for upgrades to
01:25electrical supply claiming they have started the process of seeking contractors as we all know
01:30the heat gets quite bad over in Alice Springs at this time and nothing has been done to mitigate the
01:37risk of the heat for officers and for prisoners a long summer ahead
Comments