WAPOU welcomes the announcement of a safer entrance for female prisoners at Greenough Regional Prison by the State Government. The new female estate is under construction after the original was damaged in the horrific 2018 riot. Last year, WAPOU and membe ...

WAPOU welcomed tough new prison laws, which came into effect with the recent resumption of social visits. Visitors to WA jails who attempt to bring in contraband such as drugs will now face a $12,000 fine and 18 months' jail. This is a marked improvement ...

The WA Prison Officers’ Union is calling for the use of an invasive body scanner at Acacia Prison to be focused on prisoners, instead of staff and members of the public. The Nuctech MW1000A body inspection device in place at Acacia is the only one ...

This coming week we bid farewell to Industrial Officer Sophie Van Der Merwe. Sophie recently resigned from WAPOU and will shortly take up a new role in a government agency.Sophie has been with WAPOU for a little over six years during which time she has ti ...

Well done to Kath Carroll and those members from across the state participating in The Push-Up Challenge 2020.The Push-Up Challenge brings people together, strengthens personal fitness, relationships at home and at work, and importantly raises awareness o ...

This week I also spoke to The West Australian journalist Ben Harvey about the promising results from recent drug tests in prisons.The ban on visitors has seen widespread sobriety in the state’s prisons, with the vast majority of samples from a recen ...

WAPOU would like to remind members to take care when commenting on posts on our Facebook page, which is a public forum and can be viewed by anyone. To assist with this, we have compiled some examples of the sort of offensive or violent language that is no ...

This week we have seen a lot of media over a small incident regarding a prison officer.  I want to firstly make the point, the charge is over an unfounded allegation and this is what it should be treated as, as it goes through the court system.  ...

Despite all that is occurring due to the current global pandemic, WAPOU has commenced bargaining with representatives from the Department of Justice and Public Sector Labour Relations for the Prison Officers Industrial Agreement. The current agreement ex ...

The focus of the union during these unprecedented times remains the safety and security of its members. WAPOU has been outspoken regarding the importance of maintaining strong measures to ensure our prison system remains COVID-19 free. For this reason, th ...

We are pleased to announce after years of campaigning by WAPOU, prisoners who assaulted a Prison Officer and are suspected of having an infectious disease, will undergo mandatory testing.   The Prisons Amendment Bill 2020, passed Parliament yesterday ...

On the eve of the opening of two new units at Casuarina Prison local members have expressed concerns that the large expanse of glass around the control rooms and officer interview rooms was a risk to staff. Casuarina members have requested grills to be in ...

A positive COVID-19 story coming from the Corrective Services Training Academy is that efforts to address the risks associated with the highest risk category of skills training – competencies that require physical contact, such as restraints and def ...

A long-running dispute at Hakea, in relation to 12-hour shift officers not getting their second meal break, is getting closer to being resolved.   TOIL approvals are now being processed and officers should be able to make arrangements with their loca ...

The Department of Justice’s recent decision to engage in “bulk recruitment” for the many state-wide VSO vacancies means that individual positions will not be advertised for the foreseeable future.   This is likely to have an impact ...