Prison officers in the Australian state of South Australia held a 24-hour strike over pay and conditions on 8 December. They argued that a job in a DIY store would pay them more.
The walkout kept more than 2,000 prisoners in their cells for the whole day. Staff say poor pay has caused a recruitment crisis. They say the resulting staff shortages are driving up violence in the jails.
Charlotte Watson leads the Public Service Association, the union for the state’s prison officers, as its General Secretary. “Corrections officers start on A$58,000 (£29,000) a year. Why would you work in a prison when you could earn the same amount at Bunnings [Australia’s equivalent of B&Q]?” she said.
In Thailand, the government has opened an investigation into alleged corruption at Bangkok Remand Prison. A raid at the jail found two Chinese women, described as models or ‘pretties’, in an underground room with two Chinese prisoners.
The raid followed concern that staff were letting Chinese inmates enjoy special privileges. These allegedly included sexual services in a former guards’ room. The raid also turned up boxes of condoms, portable air-conditioners and lighters.
Thailand’s Justice Minister, Pol. Lt. Gen. Rutthaphon Naowarat, spoke to journalists about the discovery. “This is completely unacceptable,” he said. The prison’s warden and 14 staff have moved to other duties.
Two recent escapes in Europe used the classic method: cutting through window bars and climbing down knotted bedsheets.
At Dijon prison in France, two prisoners on remand sawed through the bars of their window. They used “old-fashioned manual saw blades”, which may have arrived by drone. The pair then lowered themselves on sheets and got away before dawn on 27 November.
The 32-year-old escaper was arrested the following day. The 19-year-old remained on the run.
In Italy, Toma Taulant, a 41-year-old Albanian burglar, broke out of the top-security Opera jail in Milan on 7 December. Earlier breakouts have earned him the nickname “the Escape Wizard”.
He cut through his window bars with a file stolen from a prison workshop. He then slid 18 feet to the ground on knotted sheets and climbed an outer wall to get away.
