Latest news with #DamePhyllisFrostCentre
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Daily Mail
The toxic web of lesbian trysts in the hellhole women's prison that awaits mushroom killer Erin Patterson - including a jail affair even the guards find 'unsettling'
She's just been convicted of a shocking mass poisoning - now mushroom killer Erin Patterson Behind bars at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, Victoria's toughest women's prison, the former Leongatha housewife is now surrounded by hardened criminals, whose same-sex trysts help decide the pecking order.
News.com.au
07-07-2025
- News.com.au
Mushroom cook Erin Patterson accused of tampering with prison food that allegedly caused another inmate to fall ill
Triple murderer Erin Patterson was accused of tampering with prison food that allegedly caused another inmate to fall ill, while she awaited trial for poisoning her estranged husband's family with a mushroom-laced beef wellington. The claim was made by a fellow inmate at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a maximum-security women's prison in Melbourne, where Patterson was being held on remand, the Herald Sun reports. Her legal team has denied any wrongdoing, describing the accusation as 'baseless.' A Justice Department spokesperson later confirmed there was 'no evidence to support that there has been any contaminated food or suspected poisonings at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.' The department also stated that Patterson had never been in a position to prepare meals for other prisoners. Reporting on the alleged incident was previously restricted while Patterson's trial was ongoing. Inside the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, sources described Patterson as 'entitled' during her time on remand. 'All the girls have issues with each other in there,' one insider said. 'The unit Erin was housed in was almost like a melting pot of tension as they are confined to the middle of the jail and have to be escorted anywhere they go.' She had been incarcerated since November 2023, charged with the murder of Don and Gail Patterson, both aged 70, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66. She was also charged with the attempted murder of Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, 71 — the sole survivor of the fatal meal. According to sources, tensions had been escalating between Patterson and other inmates in the unit last year. It was during this time that one prisoner reportedly fell ill after consuming a meal prepared in the shared unit. Patterson was subsequently placed in solitary confinement — referred to as 'the slot' — for more than 22 hours a day while prison officers investigated the incident. Patterson was found guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Four additional attempted murder charges, relating to her former husband Simon Patterson, were withdrawn prior to the trial. The conditions of Patterson's detention also became a point of contention during her trial. In the absence of the jury, her barrister, Colin Mandy SC, told Justice Christopher Beale that his client had been denied basic items while held at Morwell Police Station. 'She didn't have access to her brief, she didn't have access to writing materials,' he said. 'She had agreed with Corrections that she could have a doona and a pillow and she wasn't given those things.' Mr Mandy argued that Patterson required 'special treatment' to ensure she could participate in her defence, given the scale of the case and the volume of evidence. 'She spent the night cold — and awake because she was cold — and she can't operate like that,' he said.
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Erin Patterson's agony is exposed in the revealing pictures we couldn't show you until today - as she now faces life in jail for triple murder
The private torment Erin Patterson faced throughout her marathon trial is etched on her face in photographs taken just a fortnight into her almost three-month-long trial. Pictures of the triple killer sitting in the back of a prison transport vehicle as she arrived at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts building on May 12 show the depth of her internal anguish. Six candid frames reveal Patterson's emotions becoming even more heightened as she realises she has been captured on film and turns away from the camera to hide her face. Justice Christopher Beale made an order on April 28 preventing publication of any pictures 'which suggest, expressly or impliedly, that she is in custody'. 'The Court orders that any online images of the accused that were published before the making of this order, and which continue to be published online, are to be cropped in accordance with the above prohibition,' his order stated. Those prohibitions are often made so as not to influence the minds of jurors who might be unaware if an accused person is on bail or in prison. Justice Beale's order was made to expire at the end of the trial, which on Monday afternoon resulted in four guilty verdicts. Patterson will be taken to the maximum security Dame Phyllis Frost Centre at Deer Park, 17km west of Melbourne's central business district, where she will start the rest of her life in prison. Pictures of the triple killer sitting in the back of a prison transport vehicle as she arrived at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts building on May 12 show the depth of her internal anguish The 50-year-old was found guilty about 2.15pm of murdering her three in-laws with death cap mushrooms in a beef Wellington that she served them for lunch at her home. The verdict ends one of the nation's most intriguing homicide cases. The mother-of-two sat defiantly throughout her 10-week trial, glaring at the media, members of the public and the family of the people she murdered with callous disregard. Patterson had pleaded not guilty to the murders of Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson. They died after consuming death caps in the beef Wellingtons during lunch at Patterson's Leongatha home in southeast Victoria on July 29, 2023. Only Pastor Ian Wilkinson survived her plot - a blunder Patterson would live to regret, and will now serve time for after also being found guilty of attempting to murder him. Seated at the back of courtroom four of the Supreme Court of Victoria, sitting at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court, Patterson, dressed in a paisley shirt, appeared stunned as her fate was sealed on Monday afternoon. Asked to deliver a verdict, the jury foreperson - one of only five women to sit on the original 15-person panel - simply stated, 'guilty'. The verdict produced an audible gasp from those within the packed courtroom, which included members of the Patterson clan. Patterson will now be taken back down to the Morwell Police Station cells where she had been kept throughout the trial. They are the cells she had grown to loathe throughout her trial, complaining about being denied a pillow, doona and her computer. She can expect to spend the next decades of her life caged within the walls of Dame Phyllis Frost Centre alongside a rogue's gallery of female killers. On her weekly trips back there, Patterson had come to loathe the Chicken Cacciatore meals provided to her en route because the dish 'had mushrooms in it'. Once caged, she can expect to be kept in an isolation cell for her own protection for the foreseeable future due to her high profile and the frailty of her elderly victims. It can now be revealed Patterson's two children had continued to see their mother behind bars while she awaited trial, unwilling to accept she could murder their grandparents and aunt. Patterson could be heard asking about them during breaks in the trial, asking a woman to ensure her now 16-year-old son was given 'extra hugs'. The arrogant killer had been so cocky she would walk free that she had workers erect black plastic around her Leongatha home to shield her from the media on her expected return. Her estranged husband Simon Patterson is expected to address the large media pack that has descended upon the Morwell courthouse. The civil engineer had been warned mid-trial by Justice Beale to hold off engaging with reporters until the verdict had been delivered. The prosecution had dumped three attempted murder charges against his wife related to him. He too had been invited to the deadly lunch, but pulled out the night before. While no motive was ever provided to the jury, it was presented with a clear picture of animosity between the estranged couple leading up to the lunch. Simon claimed that while they remained friendly during separation, things changed when he made the decision to change his relationship status on his tax return. He had been dropping the kids at Patterson's Leongatha home when she allegedly came out and asked to have a chat. The jury heard Patterson jumped in the passenger side of Simon's car. Patterson was so confident she would be going home she had workers prepare black plastic around her home to shield her from waiting media 'She discovered that my tax return for the previous year for the first time noted we were separated,' Simon told the court. Patterson told him the move would impact the family tax benefit the couple had previously enjoyed and she was obliged to now claim child support. 'She was upset about it,' Simon said. Patterson also wanted child support and the school fees paid. The court heard Patterson changed the children's school without consulting Simon. His own son would later tell the jury his dad went out of his way to hurt his mother. Patterson had banked on the jury believing it was possible she had picked the death cap mushrooms used to kill her in-laws by mistake. Throughout the trial her barrister Colin Mandy, SC, had worked to sow the seeds of doubt in the jury's minds. Patterson's legal team Sophie Stafford and Colin Mandy, SC enter the Latrobe Valley Law Courts during the trial DRAMA BEHIND THE SCENES Long lines of true crime fanatics snaked into the courtroom day after day. Small children gawked and laughed at Patterson in the prison dock as if she were a character at a theme park. The judge's tipstaff - a burly security guard charged with maintaining order in the court - was kept busy dealing with overly enthusiastic members of the public. While the jury was out, numerous people were caught taking photos inside the courtroom. One brazen gentleman went so far as to snap a selfie with Patterson in the background. The phones were seized and the photos deleted. Meanwhile, The Kyle & Jackie O Show found itself in hot water that Justice Beale suggested was in contempt. He suggested prosecutors look to charge the 'shock jocks' over comments they made on air toward the end of the trial. He did so with tactical questions aimed at trying to obtain admissions to his suggestions from key witnesses. It was a tactic that failed time and time again, leaving the jury with no doubt Patterson had deliberately picked the death cap mushrooms she used to murder her lunch guests. Lone survivor, Mr Wilkinson, was the second witness to front the jury after Simon Patterson. Seated in the witness box, Mr Wilkinson provided powerful and compelling evidence about not only how Patterson lured his family to lunch, but also how she went about killing them. He was challenged repeatedly on his evidence by Mr Mandy but never wavered from his original version of events. Mr Mandy suggested Mr Wilkinson's claim that the four plates used to serve beef Wellington to Patterson's lunch guests were all grey, and all the same, was not correct. He further suggested there was 'no smaller plate', but Mr Wilkinson disagreed. 'It (the beef Wellington) was very much like a pastie, it was a pastry case and inside was steak and mushrooms, there was gravy available on the table,' Mr Wilkinson said. 'I could see them (the plates) between Heather and Gail, there were four large grey plates, one smaller plate - a different colour, an orangy-tan colour. 'Gail picked up two of the grey plates and took them to the table, Heather picked up two of the grey plates and took them to the table, Erin picked up the odd plate and put it at her place at the table.' Mr Mandy's attempts to trip Patterson's husband up during his evidence also fell flat. Patterson had blamed Simon for the atrocious lies she told her loved ones, police, health authorities and the media after her lunch guests became seriously ill. In the last days of the trial, the jury watched Patterson tell some of those lies to Homicide Squad Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall during her record of interview. It had been Senior Constable Eppinstall who spearheaded the investigation into Patterson, leaving no stone unturned in his quest to provide justice to the families of those who lost their loved ones. During that interview, Patterson repeatedly denied owning the dehydrator she used to milk the maximum potential out of the death cap mushrooms she would later serve for lunch. 'I've got manuals of lots of stuff I've collected over the years,' Patterson told the detective on August 5, 2023, following a search of her home which located the dehydrator manual. 'I just keep them all.' Patterson also denied ever foraging for mushrooms. 'Never,' she insisted. Patterson had claimed she had bought the dried mushrooms used in her beef Wellington from an Asian grocer in Melbourne's south-east. In a heavily edited recording, Patterson was seen highlighting the level of assistance she had provided to health authorities to find that non-existent grocer. 'I'm sure you understand too that I've never been in a situation like this before, and I've been very, very helpful with the health department through the week, because I wanted to help that side of things as much as possible, because I do want to know what happened,' she said. 'I've given them as much information as they've asked for, and offered up all the food and all the information about where the food came from the house.' In a statement conveniently leaked to select media organisations after the lunch, Patterson admitted she lied to investigators when she told them she had dumped the dehydrator used to dry the death caps at the tip 'a long time ago'. Patterson claimed then she had been at the hospital with her children 'discussing the food dehydrator' when her husband asked: 'Is that what you used to poison them?' Worried that she might lose custody of the couple's children, Patterson said she then panicked and dumped the dehydrator at the tip. Six days after the meal, the dehydrator was found by police at a local tip. In an act of sheer arrogance, or stupidity, Patterson had decided not to dispose of the dehydrator in the bush, but at the tip using EFTPOS in her own name to pay for it. Simon's supposed quip about the dehydrator was put to him by Mr Mandy at trial. It had been an integral element of Patterson's defence when he opened the trial more than a month ago. But Simon denied making the comment that Patterson claimed sparked her web of lies. 'I did not say that to Erin,' Simon said. The jury then heard from a swag of medical experts, who Patterson hoped would help convince the jury that she too had become sick from eating the lunch. Mr Mandy told the jury Patterson had not pretended to be sick after the lunch. 'The defence case is that she was not feigning illness, she wasn't pretending to be sick. The defence case is that she was sick too, just not as sick,' Mr Mandy said. 'And the defence case is that she was unwell because she'd eaten some of the meal.' While intensive care specialist Professor Andrew Bersten said he was convinced Patterson had indeed suffered a 'diarrhoea illness', the jury felt her overall claims didn't stack up. The jury heard Prof Bersten had come to his conclusions based on medical records alone and had never actually treated Patterson after the lunch. Nurse Cindy Munro, who was working at Leongatha hospital when Patterson turned up the Monday after the lunch, said Patterson 'didn't look unwell' compared with two of her seriously ill lunch guests. 'She didn't look unwell like Heather and Ian,' Ms Munro said. 'Ian looked so unwell he could barely lift his head. She didn't look unwell to me.' Doctor Laura Muldoon, part of the toxicology department at Monash Medical Centre, also told the jury Patterson's claims didn't stack up. 'I noted she looked clinically well, she had some chapped lips but otherwise very well. She had normal vital signs,' Dr Muldoon said. She told the jury there was no evidence Patterson had encountered death cap mushroom poisoning or consumed any other toxins. Another doctor, Varuna Ruggoo, said Patterson's liver function tests returned normal results. Even Patterson's own children could not persuade the jury she had been sick following the lunch. Patterson's then nine-year-old daughter told police her mother had a sore tummy and diarrhoea the day after the lunch. She also claimed that she had seen her go to the toilet about 10 times. Her older brother, then aged 14, also told police his mother claimed to be sick. He told police Patterson had complained of feeling 'a bit sick and had diarrhoea'. 'She was playing it down,' he said. Despite feeling unwell, the teenager said Patterson insisted on driving him about 90km to attend a flying school lesson in Tyabb. When the lesson was cancelled due to poor weather, she was forced to turn straight back around and drive all the way home. As the trial entered its final stages, Patterson's legal team worked hard to convince the jury Patterson could have accidentally picked the death cap mushrooms. Dr Tom May, a mycologist or fungi specialist, gave jurors an extensive lesson on amanita phalloides or death cap mushrooms. Patterson's hopes lifted when Dr May gave evidence that although death caps were 'typically greenish or yellowish', they 'may be whitish or brownish with or without white patches'. The expert was taken by Patterson's defence through a series of photos of dodgy- looking mushrooms and asked to identify them. He hit the bullseye every time: they were all death caps, with none of the images looking remotely palatable to any reasonable human. Dr May had posted images on a citizen science website called iNaturalist of death caps he had found in Outtrim - a short drive from Patterson's home - in April that year. It was a location that just happened to be visited by Patterson leading up to the deadly lunch. Phone data later obtained by police alleged Patterson's phone was 'pinged' in areas identified on that website as having death cap mushrooms there. The jury further heard Patterson took steps to hide evidence, swapping out the SIM card on her usual phone while detectives were carrying out a search of her home. That phone has never been recovered. While left alone, she also managed to factory reset her new phone, handing the wiped device over to a detective and factory resetting it again remotely while it was in police possession. But Patterson was unable to erase the contents of her home computer, which contained what the jury concluded was damning evidence that what she did was premeditated. During the trial, Victoria Police forensic data analyst Shamen Fox-Henry revealed Patterson made a visit to the iNaturalist website on May 28, 2022. The title of one of the visited pages included the words, 'Deathcap from Melbourne VIC, Australia on May 18, 2022'. Mr Fox-Henry had also found a series of messages sent by Patterson that suggested she had very personal issues with Simon's parents. In the messages, Patterson described her in-laws as a 'lost cause' and exclaimed 'f**k them'. 'I mean clearly the fact that Simon refuses to talk about personal issues in part stems from the behaviour of his parents and how they operate,' she wrote around December 6, 2022. 'According to them, they've never asked him what's going on with us, why I keep kicking him out, why his son hates him, etc. It's too awkward or uncomfortable or something. So that's his learned behaviour. Just don't talk about this s**t.' Patterson claimed her father-in-law's solution to her relationship problems with his son was to 'pray'. 'Don rang me last night to say that he thought there was a solution to all this. If Simon and I get together and try to talk and pray together,' she wrote. 'And then he also said, Simon had indicated there was a solution to the financial issues if I withdraw this child support claim?!' Patterson claimed she told her in-laws she wanted them to be accountable for the decisions their son made concerning their grandchildren. 'I would hope they care about their grandchildren enough to care about what Simon is doing,' she wrote. 'Don said they tried to talk to him, but he refused to talk about it, so they're staying out of it, but want us to pray together. 'I'm sick of this s**t. I want nothing to do with them. I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing, but it seems their concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable, and not wanting to get involved in their son's personal matters, are overriding that. So f**k them.' When reporters finally caught up with Patterson in the days after the lunch, she broke down in tears and proclaimed she had done nothing wrong. 'I didn't do anything,' she said, wiping away tears. 'I loved them and I'm devastated that they're gone.' Patterson said all four guests were wonderful people and had always treated her with kindness. 'Gail was like the mum I didn't have because my mum passed away four years ago and Gail had never been anything but good and kind to me,' she continued. 'Ian and Heather were some of the best people I'd ever met. They never did anything wrong to me. 'I'm so devastated about what's happened and the loss to the community and to the families and to my own children. They've lost their grandmother,' she told reporters on August 8 that year. 'What happened is devastating and I'm grieving too and you guys don't have any respect for that.' As the trial came to its conclusion, Mr Mandy was faced with the decision to risk putting his client in the witness box in a last-ditch attempt to save her skin. His decision to put her up would come back to haunt him. Finally out of the prison dock, Patterson faced off with the jury to try and explain away her lies. She sobbed and cried in scenes similar to those seen outside her house years earlier. The jury didn't buy her story and Patterson was cooked worse than her rotten beef Wellington. She will be sentenced at a date to be fixed.
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Erin Patterson accused of tampering with prison food that made an inmate sick while waiting for the trial to begin
Mushroom cook Erin Patterson was accused of tampering with prison food while waiting for the trial to begin. An inmate housed in the same unit as Patterson at Melbourne 's Dame Phyllis Frost Centre made the allegation. Patterson reportedly had disputes with other inmates last year, and not long after, a fellow prisoner became sick from a meal served in the unit. It's understood that while in the prison, Patterson had come to loathe the Chicken Cacciatore meals provided to her en route because the dish 'had mushrooms in it'. However, she will now have to spend life behind bars after she was found guilty of three murders for deliberately poisoning her estranged husband's family. Once caged, she can expect to be kept in an isolation cell for her own protection for the foreseeable future due to her high profile and the frailty of her elderly victims. The 50-year-old mother blinked but appeared emotionless as four guilty verdicts were read out by the jury's foreperson to a full court-room of onlookers on Monday afternoon. Patterson, who took the stand for eight days during her trial, claimed she had not intentionally poisoned her lunch guests with beef Wellington parcels. She claimed deaths of three members of her estranged husband Simon's family were a terrible accident, and she may have accidentally included foraged mushrooms in the meal. Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, all died in hospital days after eating the meal, while Ian Wilkinson became sick but survived. Heather Wilkinson and Don and Gail Patterson died in hospital after eating Erin Patterson's meal. Prosecutors laid out an extensive circumstantial case during the trial in Morwell, regional Victoria, to prove the poisoning event was deliberate. This included evidence from sole lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson, who said Patterson had served individual beef Wellingtons to her guests on different plates to her own. The prosecution accused Patterson of telling a series of lies to police, including that she did not forage for mushrooms in the meal and did not own a dehydrator. She lied about it to public health investigators, who were searching to find the source of poisonous mushrooms after Patterson claimed they may be from an Asian store. Patterson lied to doctors, nurses and toxicologists while they were trying to identify why her lunch guests were sick and save their lives at hospital. She revealed for the first time that she enjoyed foraging for wild mushrooms when she was in the witness box, admitting she started mushrooming in 2020 during the pandemic. 'They tasted good and I didn't get sick,' she told the jury about preparing and eating wild fungi for the first time. After hearing more than two months of evidence, a jury of 14 was whittled down to 12 jurors who retired to deliberate on their verdicts one week ago, on June 30. They returned after deliberating for seven days with a four guilty verdicts, convicting the 50-year-old woman of three murders and one attempted murder. Patterson now faces a sentence of up to life in prison.
ABC News
01-06-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Inside a Victorian prison where an inmate recorded seven suicide attempts in four weeks
A former prisoner says she documented seven suicide attempts in just four weeks inside Victoria's maximum security women's prison, amid a wave of lockdowns triggered by staff shortages. Warning: This story contains references to self-harm and suicide attempts. Kelly Flanagan was released on parole from Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in late March, she had been incarcerated for 42 months after being found guilty of armed robbery, kidnapping and false imprisonment. She described her crimes as a "drug deal gone wrong". Since July last year, the prison faced unprecedented rolling lockdowns disrupting legal, health and welfare services, as well as cutting off visits and phone calls. Lockdowns are usually reserved for emergencies like riots or other security breaches. However, at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, they've been routinely implemented due to a lack of staff. With each prisoner sealed in a small individual cell, Ms Flanagan likened the conditions to solitary confinement. She says she and her fellow prisoners were locked away with no interaction or support or sometimes even meals for days and nights on end. "You'd normally get unlocked at 8:30 in the morning, they would count everyone … and then the next thing you know, you're not getting let out. So you're required to stay in your cell," she told 7.30. Her diary documents a suicide attempt by a fellow inmate on March 13, the attending nurse said the inmate had slashed her own throat and wrists. Just two days later, another attempt was recorded in her documents. Ms Flanagan wrote notes about five further attempts involving Indigenous women in a separate unit. "This is what happens when you put us in a space with no connection," she told 7.30. Two years before Waradjari woman Ms Flanagan was incarcerated, another Indigenous woman, Veronica Nelson, died in custody at the same prison. An inquest into her death prompted major reforms, but Ms Flanagan says she fears the widespread lockdowns could lead to another death in custody. "Enough is enough. How many more people need to die for someone to listen, for someone to take accountability?" Ms Flanagan asked. "I feel like I owe it to the other women to give them a voice." The Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS) told 7.30 in a statement "lockdowns are sometimes required to ensure the safety of staff and prisoners". Confidential government correspondence obtained by 7.30 reveals there have been at least 106 lockdowns at the prison since July last year. One letter, signed by the Department of Justice and Community Safety's acting secretary, Ryan Phillips, insists meals and legal visits have continued as usual and denies any rise in self-harm incidents. It also states no unit was locked down for more than one consecutive day. However, a log of legal and other services also obtained by 7.30 contradicts these assurances. On February 18, a 43-hour lockdown was recorded. 'No access out of cell', the entry states. On November 8 and 11, 'no dinner' is catalogued. Former prisoner Kelly Flanagan also noted 'no dinner' in her diary on those days. The same activity log documents seven missed legal appointments and the cancellation of 28 housing-related appointments, a critical requirement for prisoners nearing release. Without secured housing, inmates cannot be paroled. Adriana Mackay from the support service Flat Out says multiple women they've supported were held in prison months beyond their release dates because lockdowns prevented them from attending key housing appointments. "Housing offers will be rescinded and taken off the table, and we're left really scrambling, trying to advocate for the housing offer to remain whilst there is an uncertainty," Ms Mackay said. She recalls supporting Kelly Flanagan while she was still inside, noting Ms Flanagan missed most of her appointments due to lockdowns and remained in custody months past her release date. A number of support services, including Flat Out, have raised concerns about the impact of the lockdowns, but Ms Mackay says government officials continue to dismiss them. "What we're seeing on the ground versus what's being told to us … they don't match up," Ms Mackay. "We're just all at a loss." A spokesperson for the DJCS told 7.30 prisoners "continue to have their healthcare needs met if a lockdown occurs and arrangements are also made to ensure access to legal services and rehabilitation". Earlier this month, more than 1,000 prison officers cast a no-confidence vote in the state's Corrections Commissioner Larissa Strong. The CPSU, which conducted the vote, cited soaring violence, a string of assaults against staff across the prison system and chronic staff shortages, problems expected to get even worse under the state's tougher bail laws, which were introduced in March and are likely to increase the prison population. To address this, the Victorian government announced a $727 million cash injection, which will go towards securing 1,000 more prison beds. The government has also launched an aggressive recruitment drive for prison guards, which includes an $8,000 sign-on sweetener for recruits. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said more than 640 new prison officers have already signed on. However, the state's Shadow Corrections Minister David Southwick said the new measures are not enough to transform what he calls a system in crisis. "It's just crazy, the fact that this government has allowed it to get this bad," Mr Southwick said. He says prison guards have been contacting him directly, expressing their unwillingness to turn up to work due to safety concerns and a lack of support from management. "Four staff were injured yesterday due to non-compliant prisoners," one text read. "Two more of my colleagues have been assaulted. One sustained a punch to the face, and the other was spat on." another read. He says some guards are now refusing to show up for work, while others are quitting the service altogether, worsening staff shortages and creating further lockdowns. "It's just a vicious cycle," Mr Southwick said. The Minister for Corrections Enver Erdogan told 7.30 in a statement he has asked the Commissioner to review "how handcuffs and other measures are used to make sure staff safety is put first." "We are continuing to recruit hundreds of new corrections staff … with new recruits starting at DPFC (Dame Phyllis Frost Centre) soon." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
