Prisoners howled in the back of court cells, screaming for help, as unprecedented arrests after law changes brought court proceedings to a halt.
In the first 24 hours since new breaches of bail laws came into effect in the Northern Territory, police arrested 31 people, causing Darwin Local Court to come to a standstill on Tuesday.
NT Legal Aid duty lawyer Laurence Waugh told Judge Greg McDonald when court began at 9.30am only three of the 31 prisoners were in court cells and lawyers were unable to seek instructions from clients.
“I mean, the idea of a court dealing with 31 people in custody in a single day is already pretty extraordinary and it's all the more challenging,” he said.
“The lawyers can't begin speaking to their clients until court's already under way.”
Mr Waugh told reporters outside court it was “vanishingly unlikely that all 31 people will be dealt with today” and there would be countless more on the list on Wednesday.
“It’s a compounding problem.”
By 10am when prisoners had arrived, journalists sat in an adjourned court while lawyers attempted to see clients. The inmates could be heard howling and banging on metal in the cells.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro on Monday announced Palmerston Police watch house would become a temporary jail solely for prisoners and converted cells at the NT police training academy into holding cells for those arrested.
However, the academy has a maximum capacity of just 16 detainees.
Ms Finocchiaro said the backlog had been addressed by extending court hours and judges had been added to the bench.
One appointment was the top prosecutor for the government, meaning three senior lawyers have left the Department of Public Prosecutions in the past seven months.
“This is absolutely imperfect but it's a system we've got,” she said.
A man was remanded to custody on Monday after he was approved for community-based sentencing because the judge was told no family violence programs were running.
“What I do know is added pressure on our correction system means they've had to pull back on delivering some of that important rehabilitation, such is the nature of the mess we have inherited,” Ms Finocchiaro said.
“We have had to cease some programs of rehabilitation in prison because of the demand of prison services is so high … the only other alternative is to leave criminals out on the street.”
According to a Department of Corrections spokesperson, no programs had been suspended but increased prisoner numbers had created a cycle of lockdowns, or unlocks, which had reduced access to programs.
“Overcrowding is causing difficulties with access to prisoners and limiting service delivery across the board,” the spokesperson said.
But when the new government moved community-based services and youth justice into the department some domestic and family violence programs were impacted.
Domestic and family violence expert Chay Brown said what was happening underscored a lack of investment in programs that could address behaviour change and ultimately keep women safe.
“It’s (the) government who have amended the bail laws and have publicly celebrated the increase prison numbers, only to now turn around and bemoan the fact the prisons are bursting at the seams," Dr Brown said.
"They were warned about all of this. They promised the community they would have it solved within 100 days and now they're standing up there saying things are more complex.
“That's what happens when you have really simplistic punitive responses to what is actually really complex social problems.”
Dr Brown said referrals to men's behaviour-change and family violence programs had long outstripped funding and more had to be done to prevent women being killed.
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