By Jon Daly
The McGowan Government will put $120 million towards the expansion of WA's prison capacity to deal with a rising population in custody and a prison system bursting at the seams.
WA Prison Officers Union secretary John Welch said the prison estate was on the cusp of being physically unable to house almost 6,500 people in the WA prison system.
The WA Prison Officers Union is concerned about overcrowding and staff numbers in WA PrisonsCredit: Dan Henson
"Even if you look at the operational capacity, we are close to being full," he said.
"Without additions to the prison system, in the next year or two we'd be moving towards the situation of triple bunking."
Casuarina Prison will get an extra 512 beds.
Mr Welch said the Barnett Government had utterly failed to address the massive increase in the prison population under its watch.
In 2009, a year after Colin Barnett rose to the top job, the number of WA prisoners stood at 4,419.
That figure has now increased by 46 per cent to 6,488, according to Department of Corrective Services figures.
In the last two years there has been an increase of 10 per cent alone.
Bunbury Prison will get an extra 160 beds.
"The State Government should be commended for not only recognising the serious overcrowding problem in our prison system, but for also taking action to try and deal with the problem, even under difficult budgetary pressures," Mr Welch said.
"[The Barnett Government] did nothing to deal with the chronic overcrowding in WA's prisons, all the while managing to wreck our state's finances."
The expansion aims to create an additional 672 beds by 2019, of which 512 would be built at Casuarina Prison.
Speaking at the site, Corrective Services minister Fran Logan said the expansion would make Casuarina one of Australia's biggest prisons.
"The 512 beds at a cost of $96 million is absolutely needed. The prison system has been nearly at capacity for many years," he said.
Casurina's extra beds will be built at the rear of the building as two new wings, separate from the main facility, according to Mr Logan.
Another 160 beds will be created at Bunbury Prison.
Mr Logan said the overcrowding of WA's prisons had been caused by the poor management of the situation by the former Barnett Government, which promised a new $600 million prison at the State election.
Opposition leader and former treasurer Mike Nahan has renewed calls for the new prison.
"Their priorities are wrong and they have to stop blaming the previous government and get on with being responsible for their own decisions," Dr Nahan said.
"We need a new prison and we need it soon.
"Instead of taking on the responsibility of build a prison, they are cutting other essential services and under doing it."
Mr Logan said the government's expansion plan would create the equivalent capacity of a new prison, at a third of the cost.
"There was no money for a new prison, there was no direction for a new prison and there was no action being taken to build a new prison. We were left with a crisis," he said.
"The way in which we are dealing with the crisis is to use the existing prison estate and to think smartly about how we tackle the problem.
"By using the existing prison estate it means that the cost of infrastructure is kept low."
Mr Logan said the state government had also created a further 212 beds already by implementing double bunking in all prison cells.
"All of the prisons across Western Australia were designed to be single-cell. Virtually every cell in WA is now double-bunked and they were never designed that way, but that is the way it has to be," he said.
"It is not dangerous. It is uncomfortable for prisoners. As a prisoner you are sharing a very small space with another prison.
"Unfortunately that is part and parcel of going to prison."
But Mr Welch has warned that overcrowding and double-bunking was having implications for the safety of prison officers.
"We have people being shoe-horned into a tiny space of a cell designed for one person, especially when dealing with the hot heat of a Perth summer," he said.
"It is easy to see how combustible that situation can become and how difficult it becomes for a prison officer to handle that situation."
The funding announcement comes just days after inmates at Hakea prison threatened staff and destroyed property in a riot.
Special operations group officers were called to Hakea Prison late on Wednesday to subdue the seven out-of-control inmates.
Mr Welch said the incident highlighted the urgent need for the state government to fix the WA prison system's chronic overcrowding.
Mr Welch said Hakea was about 300 prisoners above design capacity, with the majority of inmates double-bunked.