United Workers Union NT Secretary Erina Early says a corrections officer, serving for more than 30 years, had his eye removed yesterday after being attacked with crouches when moving prisoners around

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yesterday, we were contacted by a listener who said there'd
been an unprovoked attack on a correctional officer on Tuesday
at about lunchtime at the Darwin Correctional Center. The officer
was attacked by a prisoner with a set of crutches
which were not his own. The correctional officer is now
to have surgery on his eye, we are told, very

(00:20):
serious surgery. Joining me on the line is Erina Early,
the secretary of the United Workers Union. Good morning, Erina,
let me try that again. My fault, I think tech issues,
but hopefully I've got her. Good morning to you, Erina.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Good morning, Katie, thank.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
You so much for your time this morning, Erina. As
I said, we were told yesterday we had somebody get
in contact with us saying that a correctional officer was
seriously injured earlier in the week with a set of crutches.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
What have you learned, Thanks Katie. That is correct and
I've got permission. The officer is David, he said, I
was fine to share that with you today, Katie. I
spoke to him early this morning. He lost his eye yesterday.
It's been removed.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Oh my goodness, Aaron, I'm lost for words. I want
to ask how David's going, but I don't even think
that's the right question to ask after he's just lost
his eye.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, to be honest, Katie, he's a bit shocked. He's
in a lot of pain at the moment. It's very
difficult to process every everything that is going on, etc.
So but yeah, we had a really good chat and
I mentioned that I was speaking to you today and

(01:45):
that's when he said he was more than happy to
share any information with you and territorians.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, mate, please tell him we're very grateful for that,
and my like, my love to him and my thoughts
are with him, because that sounds like a terrible situation.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, But I'm told he's
been a correctional officer for a very long time.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yes, roughly about thirty years.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Well thirty years. Is this the first time that he
has had something like this happen.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Oh, He's had very different degrees of what officers would
call assaults, but something like this is the most significant
that David's gone through.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Can you tell us, I mean, is David happy for
you to share what happened?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yes? Yes, So he's passed on some information to me.
So basically, what's happening is when prisoners come through, they
come through a reception area in corrections, and due to
the increase prisoner numbers is they're not being classified. They're
not going through the classification system thoroughly yet because they

(02:55):
have to move them outside so they can get some exercise, etce.
Because the reception area is used for the courts during
the day. So what's happening These prisoners are being moved
into minimum security without being properly classified. So you're potentially
putting dangerous prisoners into a minimum security area. So during

(03:20):
that day with David, with that prisoner, he hadn't been
properly assessed.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yet, So he hadn't been properly assised. He's somehow grabs
someone scratches and very very seriously assaulted David.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yes, and the thing is as well, for safe staffing
levels is always meant to be three officers in the
minimum security David was the only officer there when the
attack happened.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
I mean, Erona, what like I know that you and
I have spoken before about those staffing levels. We've spoken
before about safety concerns. I mean, what does David want
our listeners and want me to know this morning. When
it comes to these very serious worries, The main thing
I think David wants to put across is that corrections

(04:12):
is in crisis.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
It is broken, that the classification system was at fault.
He should never been placed in this position where he
was the only and we shouldn't be putting prisoners through
that are not assessed properly because there are huge risks
to officers and huge risks to other prisoners as well.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Erina, I really appreciate you speaking to us this morning.
I really appreciate David allowing you to give us that information.
Please pass on my thoughts to him. Are our love
to him. I don't know what to say, like I
really feel for him. To lose your eye as a

(04:55):
result of something happening in your workplace is mortifying.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Is it absolutely is? As I've always said to you,
Katie's officers always worry about if this is going to
be the shift. Either they're going to come home, you know, safely,
or they're going to come home injured. Unfortunately, David has
lost his eye again.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Please let him know that we're thinking of him. When
he's up to having a chat. I'd be more than
happy to have him on the show if he wanted to.
But do you think, do you is he I know
I was told that he's close to retirement. I don't
know if that's correct or not. But do you think
he's going to be wanting to go back to his
job after this?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
I'm not sure, Katie, to be honest, I think all
of those things factors were going through his head at
the moment. Yeah, because as he did say, it's not
a safe workplace at the moment, and as you know,
we've got the vote of no confidence against Commissioner Vali
and he did say to me he generally feels he's
been let down by commission by the commissioner because they

(05:56):
haven't been providing them a safe workplace.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Eron, please let us, let me let us know how
he's tracking, you know, keep us up to date. And look,
I plan on talking about this tomorrow throughout the week
that was as well. I think it's a terrible, terrible
situation that he has endured. I'm told that he was
that he's a much loved member of the corrections community
as a worker, but also that he's very well respected

(06:19):
by those prisoners.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Oh absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Thank you thank you very much for having a chat
with me this morning. Aeron, thank you, you two