00:02Just weeks since the CLP government insisted the watch house crisis was over.
00:08When we come to office some 18 months ago, there were literally hundreds and hundreds of people in watch houses
00:12for a very long period of time. We've stopped that.
00:15The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency claims people mostly on remand are once again being held in police watch houses
00:23for weeks at a time,
00:24accusing the government of renaming parts of this Darwin facility to conceal the practice.
00:30What it appears to me is that by renaming it from a watch house to a corrections facility,
00:35by reclassifying it from a police controlled watch house into a corrections controlled facility,
00:40it allows the government to say that they're not doing what they used to be doing,
00:43when in fact they still are doing what they were doing.
00:46Naja says those held within the facility have described overcrowded conditions,
00:51prolonged detention and no on-site medical staff.
00:55One client reporting he could not tell how long he'd been at the facility because he hadn't seen the sun.
01:01Another saying he was forced to share a small cell with five other people for 23 hours a day.
01:07Others reporting being held for multiple weeks.
01:10NT government is not being transparent.
01:13One of the questions is what exactly are they trying to hide?
01:16On Wednesday, NT Corrections Minister Gerard Maley confirmed the watch house was in use again for short stays
01:24and that significant changes have been made, brushing off Naja's claim it was renamed to mask long-term detention.
01:32This facility is being used to improve community safety and to ease pressure on both police and corrections.
01:39Naja is calling on the NT government to commit to transparency about people being held in watch house like conditions,
01:47full health checks and assurances no one is detained for longer than four days.
01:52Naja says thank you for books being held in watch house or visit the症候 unit.
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