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Overcrowded prisons have triggered plans for the Northern Territory to move male and female inmates as part of emergency measures.
Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley has ordered a mass prisons shift after NT inmate numbers hit a record high of 2370 on Friday.
The record numbers have put “significant pressure” on Darwin Correctional Centre, Alice Springs Correctional Centre and police watch houses.
Mr Varley had deemed the current situation posed extraordinary risks that required immediate action, the NT government said.
Under his directions, 10 extra prisoners will be placed into Darwin watch house, 20 more inmates sent to Darwin prison and 20 others added to the Alice Springs Reintegration Facility.
All female prisoners at Alice Springs prison will be temporarily transferred to sector 4 of Darwin prison until a new women’s facility in Alice Springs is operational.
Another 40 male inmates are to be housed at a “hotel block” within Alice Springs prison, and pressure relieved “accordingly” on Katherine, Palmerston and Alice Springs watch houses.
The first stages of the plan were expected to be executed this weekend.
“The Department (of Corrections) is developing operational plans to implement these changes and to ensure necessary staffing levels and security in the correctional centres,” the NT government said.
“The safety of correctional officers remains a top priority throughout this process.”
The United Workers Union, which represents NT correctional officers, has not agreed to the planned moves and is formally disputing the emergency actions under its enterprise agreement.
“Consultation with unions will continue regarding this dispute,” the NT government said.
The union has been contacted for comment.
Dozens of inmates rioted in Alice Springs prison in January, using bed frames and fans as weapons after a plan to lure a guard into a cell failed.
Two prisoners were taken to hospital for medical treatment and two dormitories that house 10 to 15 prisoners each were damaged.
A 2022 report by the Justice Reform Initiative found incarceration rates in the NT were four times the Australian average for adults and five times higher for children.
Prisoner numbers had grown by more than 30 per cent over a decade, with the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults in prison rising 34.4 per cent.