A severe shortage of Corrective Services staff is threatening to bring trials at Wollongong courthouse to a standstill, in a situation the region’s top judicial officer has labelled “untenable”.
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The Mercury can reveal there were only enough prison officers to service two courts on Monday, despite department heads knowing months in advance that five custodial courts would be operating on the day.
The law requires prisoners to be escorted to and from courtrooms by two Corrective Services officers, who must remain in the courtroom with them at all times.
Judge Conlon said the staffing shortfall meant there would potentially be three courts at a time that would not be able to operate.
He vowed to do what he could to improve the “extraordinary” shortfall after finding himself sitting idle on the bench on Monday morning – less than a week after the courthouse reopened – as staff were busy elsewhere.
“I’m aware this is no fault of the Correctives officers that staff this court, I know that they have attempted to alert authorities to the inadequate staffing,” he said, adding it wasn’t the first time they had been short staffed.
“There were various occasions when I took the matter up with senior Corrective Services officers responsible for staffing this complex to indicate how difficult it was for the district court to operate when there were not the officers to be able to bring people in custody into court.
“I’m aware requests for additional staff have been made, however nothing has occurred.
“I undertake to do what I can to rectify this situation but my attempts on previous occasions were met with little success.”
The Mercury put detailed questions to Corrective Services NSW, however they went unanswered.
“Corrective Services will provide additional staff to Wollongong Courthouse as required and continue to work with the court to ensure appropriate staffing levels on busy days,” a spokesperson said.
“Any vacancies on rosters are routinely filled by fully-trained casual officers.”