When Joanna Scriven talks to her friend, who is in prison in NSW, he regularly reports finding “clumps” in the drinking water.
He says this has happened repeatedly at the Kirkconnell Correctional Centre and the Lithgow Correctional Centre.
Scriven also said that at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, people are concerned that the drinking water comes from a tap located directly above the toilet.
And a recent inspection report found that the tap water at the Broken Hill Correctional Centre was “undrinkable”, and if you weren’t a local it “makes you sick”.
While access to clean drinking water is a basic human right for people in prison, there have been a number of recent reports of dirty and metallic-tasting drinking water in prisons around the country, raising concerns over the health impact of consuming such water.
Despite this, Tasmania is understood to be the only jurisdiction that regularly tests the quality of drinking water in its prisons.
On the back of a number of inspection reports, there is now a growing call for state and territory governments to test drinking water in prisons routinely and to ensure staff make filtered water available if the tap water is deemed to be unsafe.
Stuart Kinner, the head of the Justice Health Group at Curtin University, said that safe drinking water is a “basic necessity for life and health”, and testing the water being provided to people in prison makes sense.
“People in prison are entitled to the same standard of healthcare as people in the community, and that extends to healthy living conditions,” Kinner told About Time. “Across Australia, drinking water is tested regularly at multiple points in the supply chain. Including prisons in routine water quality testing is a no-brainer.”
Along with the reports in NSW, the issue spans nationwide.
When inspectors visited Acacia Prison in Western Australia, they were inundated with complaints that the drinking water had sediment in it and a metallic taste.
These complaints came both from people incarcerated at the prison and staff working there.
“[There were] significant concerns over the quality and potential contamination of the water supply,” the WA Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services (OICS) said in its report based on its inspection of Acacia Prison.
“We heard persistent complaints that the water contained black fragments and that it had a strong metallic taste. People in custody were highly frustrated [that] they were expected to continue drinking the water, without any option to purchase bottled water.”
Acacia’s prison operator is the multinational giant, Serco. Following the inspectorate’s report, Serco took action, and said that the issue had been addressed. But more recent visits by the OICS heard continuing complaints about the water.
The OICS was told that a funding application to install a water filter for the Western Australian prison had been rejected by the Western Australian government.
As the OICS noted in its report, “clean drinking water is a basic right, and regardless of who is responsible, it needs to be addressed.”
There have been reports that the water in some units at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre (DPFC) in Victoria was leaving sinks and showers green and had a metallic taste.
About Time understands that water testing was conducted at DPFC in August in six areas of the prison and the water was found to be compliant with the required standards.
In 2021, the Office of the Custodial Inspector Tasmania published a special report looking at environmental health and hygiene in the state’s prison, including the results of testing of the drinking water.
It found high levels of metal in some of the drinking water, and recommended that taps should be run cold for 30 seconds before drinking.
The Tasmania Prison Service confirmed to About Time that a plumbing company is now contracted to undertake water sampling from a number of sites around the prisons in the state every six months.
These samples are then analysed by a Tasmanian laboratory to ensure it meets Australian drinking water standards.
Walter filters are also used in a number of Tasmanian prisons and are replaced every six months.
A number of states, including Victoria and New South Wales, rely on the regular testing conducted by water agency providers and government agencies on the broader water supply.
But there are concerns that ageing infrastructure at many prisons around the country is contributing to drinking water being potentially dirty or unsafe to drink.
“The drinking water quality in buildings can deteriorate due to poor design and management of internal plumbing systems,” a spokesperson for the National Health and Medical Research Council told About Time.
“For example, a potential issue is the leaching of metals from plumbing products into drinking water. This may result from long periods of stagnation, where drinking water is sitting in contact with plumbing products for extended periods, or from plumbing products that have deteriorated or corroded.
“Older plumbing products may introduce higher than regulated levels of lead, copper or other metals.”
There is now significant pressure on corrections authorities to test the water in their prisons to ensure that safe drinking water is being provided to people in custody – a basic human right under international law.
When Joanna Scriven talks to her friend, who is in prison in NSW, he regularly reports finding “clumps” in the drinking water.
He says this has happened repeatedly at the Kirkconnell Correctional Centre and the Lithgow Correctional Centre.
Scriven also said that at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, people are concerned that the drinking water comes from a tap located directly above the toilet.
And a recent inspection report found that the tap water at the Broken Hill Correctional Centre was “undrinkable”, and if you weren’t a local it “makes you sick”.
While access to clean drinking water is a basic human right for people in prison, there have been a number of recent reports of dirty and metallic-tasting drinking water in prisons around the country, raising concerns over the health impact of consuming such water.
Despite this, Tasmania is understood to be the only jurisdiction that regularly tests the quality of drinking water in its prisons.
On the back of a number of inspection reports, there is now a growing call for state and territory governments to test drinking water in prisons routinely and to ensure staff make filtered water available if the tap water is deemed to be unsafe.
Stuart Kinner, the head of the Justice Health Group at Curtin University, said that safe drinking water is a “basic necessity for life and health”, and testing the water being provided to people in prison makes sense.
“People in prison are entitled to the same standard of healthcare as people in the community, and that extends to healthy living conditions,” Kinner told About Time. “Across Australia, drinking water is tested regularly at multiple points in the supply chain. Including prisons in routine water quality testing is a no-brainer.”
Along with the reports in NSW, the issue spans nationwide.
When inspectors visited Acacia Prison in Western Australia, they were inundated with complaints that the drinking water had sediment in it and a metallic taste.
These complaints came both from people incarcerated at the prison and staff working there.
“[There were] significant concerns over the quality and potential contamination of the water supply,” the WA Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services (OICS) said in its report based on its inspection of Acacia Prison.
“We heard persistent complaints that the water contained black fragments and that it had a strong metallic taste. People in custody were highly frustrated [that] they were expected to continue drinking the water, without any option to purchase bottled water.”
Acacia’s prison operator is the multinational giant, Serco. Following the inspectorate’s report, Serco took action, and said that the issue had been addressed. But more recent visits by the OICS heard continuing complaints about the water.
The OICS was told that a funding application to install a water filter for the Western Australian prison had been rejected by the Western Australian government.
As the OICS noted in its report, “clean drinking water is a basic right, and regardless of who is responsible, it needs to be addressed.”
There have been reports that the water in some units at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre (DPFC) in Victoria was leaving sinks and showers green and had a metallic taste.
About Time understands that water testing was conducted at DPFC in August in six areas of the prison and the water was found to be compliant with the required standards.
In 2021, the Office of the Custodial Inspector Tasmania published a special report looking at environmental health and hygiene in the state’s prison, including the results of testing of the drinking water.
It found high levels of metal in some of the drinking water, and recommended that taps should be run cold for 30 seconds before drinking.
The Tasmania Prison Service confirmed to About Time that a plumbing company is now contracted to undertake water sampling from a number of sites around the prisons in the state every six months.
These samples are then analysed by a Tasmanian laboratory to ensure it meets Australian drinking water standards.
Walter filters are also used in a number of Tasmanian prisons and are replaced every six months.
A number of states, including Victoria and New South Wales, rely on the regular testing conducted by water agency providers and government agencies on the broader water supply.
But there are concerns that ageing infrastructure at many prisons around the country is contributing to drinking water being potentially dirty or unsafe to drink.
“The drinking water quality in buildings can deteriorate due to poor design and management of internal plumbing systems,” a spokesperson for the National Health and Medical Research Council told About Time.
“For example, a potential issue is the leaching of metals from plumbing products into drinking water. This may result from long periods of stagnation, where drinking water is sitting in contact with plumbing products for extended periods, or from plumbing products that have deteriorated or corroded.
“Older plumbing products may introduce higher than regulated levels of lead, copper or other metals.”
There is now significant pressure on corrections authorities to test the water in their prisons to ensure that safe drinking water is being provided to people in custody – a basic human right under international law.
Including tough bail laws being introduced in Victoria, the South Australian Government ruling out raising the age of criminal responsibility, a new parole board president appointed in Queensland and more.
The Australian Federal election is coming up. This is about voting for the Prime Minister and other federal politicians. It will be held on 3 May 2025.
“We can’t get information about how a party or candidate’s policies must impact prisoners,” Kelly told About Time. “Prison officers also will not provide us with any information as it is seen as political.”
Prison work differs across the country.
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