Bunbury Regional Prison expansion labelled a ‘rush job’ by union after water leak forces prisoner relocation

The WA Prison Officer’s Union has labelled the new wing at Bunbury Regional Prison a “rush job” after 40 cells were closed a week after they opened due to a fault in the infrastructure. The $23 million expansion – an additional 160 beds – were unveiled on October 18 and prisoners started filling the new wing days later. On October 30 the union was alerted to the fault caused by a water leak through some cells’ ventilation system, subsequently damaging the alarm system in 40 cells. The alarms are used in the case of an emergency. As a result 65 prisoners had to be relocated into other cells in the wing and planned transfers have been delayed. According to union acting secretary Paul Ledingham, remedial measures taken include blocking the ventilation systems in the cells where prisoners had been relocated. “There are 65 prisoners in cells without appropriate ventilation and we’ve just had our hottest November day on record,” Mr Ledingham said. The building took nine months to complete which Mr Ledingham said had alarmed members of the union who worked at the prison. He said the construction and commissioning of the new wing was rushed because of rising pressures on WA’s prison population. Numbers in WA’s prison system reached 6975 at the weekend. The State has never had more than 7000 prisoners, according to Mr Ledingham. “We’re pretty sure the reason for not doing an appropriate commissioning is because the Department (of Justice) didn’t want to delay the opening ceremony and positive news around the unit,” he said. A Department of Justice spokesperson said the commissioning of the expansion took place as per the approved schedule and the issues were identified during the project’s commissioning phase. “To prevent further damage, the window vents were temporarily closed,” the spokesperson said. “The new cells still had adequate ventilation and were compliant under the building codes, without the window vents. “A permanent solution is being developed by the contractor.” The work is being undertaken and is expected to be completed at the end of this week, according to the department. Mr Ledingham believed proper remedial work had not been undertaken due to the risk of completing the work while prisoners were inside the wing, but he said prisoners could not be taken out of the wing because there was no space to put them in the existing prison. “All of this was very premature. Unfortunately, because the department rushed to backfill the cells, they were moved from the existing prison, there wasn’t an option to put them back and do the proper works required. “This was all preventable.” Next year additional beds will come online at Perth maximum security prison Casuarina. Mr Ledingham said he hoped the department learnt from the mistakes at Bunbury Prison before opening the new beds.