Darwin Bishop Charles Gauci has written to the Northern Territory Government expressing concern over a chronic lack of access to NT prisons, saying chaplains are effectively being locked out. Source: ABC News.
In a letter to Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro and Corrections Minister Gerard Maley, on behalf of the NT Catholic clergy, Bishop Gauci said Catholic chaplains were facing “significant obstacles” reaching prisoners.
“While we understand the pressure within the justice system, we believe the current lack of accessibility for chaplaincy services is both a practical and moral concern,” he said.
Fr Dan Benedetti MGL said his team of volunteers had been unable to provide church services at Darwin Correctional Centre in Holtze since November.
“This for me is quite distressing and heartbreaking, because it’s highly valued – the opportunity for men and women to come together, to share their issues and their problems, to pray for their families, to pray for their futures,” he said.
The territory’s prison population has risen by more than 500 since the Country Liberal Party was elected at last year’s territory election, with a record 2768 people incarcerated as of Friday.
To accommodate the rising incarceration rate, prisoners have been kept in police watch houses, while the Government has also expanded capacity at Alice Springs Correctional Centre and reopened a second adult prison in the Darwin suburb of Berrimah.
Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley said the increase in prisoners, lockdowns and staff shortages had impacted the delivery of several programs at the territory’s correctional centres.
“We’ve been persistently under pressure … and that has resulted in disruptions to not only the chaplaincy program but to other rehabilitation programs, our education and training programs, and also our employment [programs],” he said.
“We know that the prison needs to be reactivated, re-engaged and unlocked again, that’s what we’re working hard to do.”
Bishop Gauci said the pastoral care provided by chaplains was “a vital element in the path toward rehabilitation and healing”.
Mr Maley said the lack of access for chaplains was “not ideal, but being in prison is not an ideal place”.
FULL STORY
Catholic chaplains locked out of NT jails as prison population continues to rise (By Jack Hislop, ABC News)
