Shocking new claims about lockdowns, suicide attempts and ‘green water' at Melbourne prison

News.com.au

a day ago

Ashleigh Chapman is pacing back and forth inside her tiny cell in the solitary confinement division at Melbourne's maximum security women's prison.
She is almost six feet tall and her long legs take seven steps to reach the concrete wall on one side before she turns 180 degrees and paces back towards the other wall.
The monotony of daily life in 'the slot' at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre is not her only problem.
The water for showering, brushing her teeth and filling her water bottle are turning the sink and the shower floor green. When she boils it inside the glass kettle inside her cell, the walls of the kettle turn black, she says.
'You couldn't see inside the kettle at all,' Chapman tells news.com.au.
Her weight has dropped from 80kg to 50kg behind bars, because something is 'making me sick'.
She skips meals routinely when prison officers ignore her allergies and serve her food that could cause anaphylactic shock. Cereal for dinner, or nothing at all, is a regular theme.
She listens out for the jangling of keys. It's part of what she refers to as the 'psychological torment and torture' that comes with being locked inside her cell for 23 hours a day — or 24 if she gets unlucky.
Her tiny, daily taste of freedom comes in the form of a 20-minute visit to the airing yard or a trip to the empty loungeroom void of a single other human being and where the TV remote is broken.
Chapman, who left the facility in Melbourne's north in May after four years behind bars, says there were numerous days where she spent 24 hours in her cell.
On other days, she would be let out only to be told immediately to re-enter her cell.
'They literally unlocked my door. As soon as I stepped out they said, 'sorry, we need to lock you back in'. I said, 'why?' and they said, 'doesn't matter, go back in'.'
Chapman speaks almost daily with three inmates still inside. She says they are 'constantly reporting' lockdowns that mean inmates are having their basic human rights taken away.
It's leading to huge numbers of self-harm incidents and suicide attempts, she says.
A 'code black', which is a medical event, happens 'nearly every day'.
'Whether or not that would be almost passing away, self harm is rampant,' Chapman says.
'The amount of times that medical would be called for a code black is unbelievable.'
'She did it quietly in her cell'
Kelly Flanagan left the prison in March this year after spending two years in the Murray Unit — which is not for inmates in solitary confinement.
In diary notes shared with news.com.au, she reveals that lockdowns — usually reserved for riots or security breaches — have been occuring almost daily because of staff shortages.
The result — seven suicide attempts in a single month.
'Just before I got out, the women at DPFC including me were being locked down as much as 60 per cent of the time,' Flanagan says.
'In the last month that I was in prison there were seven women who tried to commit suicide. Five of those were Indigenous women. Two near fatal attempts. The community does not know how bad it is there at the moment.'
Her diary notes show that in February this year there were lockdowns on February 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24 and 27.
Flanagan has compiled a spreadsheet of every lockdown at DPFC between January 2024 and May 2025. The data has come from prisoners, lawyers and other prison sources, she says.
It shows the Gordon Unit, where Chapman was in solitary confinement, had 14 all day lockdowns between March and May this year. The reason for those lockdowns was 'no staff'.
'On March 13, I was living two cells down from a woman who tried to kill herself,' Flanagan tells news.com.au.
'This particular woman couldn't handle the lockdowns anymore. She expressed this to us and the officers on many occasions. She voiced it every day.
'She really couldn't handle being alone anymore. She tried to end her life by cutting her wrist and letting herself bleed out. She did it quietly in her cell, door shut and nobody knew anything.
'She almost passed away by the time we found her. My heart is breaking for her. I want to cry for her. No one should ever feel this isolated.'
Victoria's Corrections Minister Enver Erdogan addressed the concerns around lockdowns during Question Time on May 28.
'This issue has been going on for a number of months now, I must admit that as minister I have been quite frustrated, too, understanding that staff there are very passionate about making a difference,' he said.
'Lockdowns are sometimes required in our prison system. It is necessary to maintain the safety and security of prisoner and staff. We do expect them to be kept to a minimum.'
News.com.au has reached out to the Department of Corrections for comment.
A spokesperson said: 'We take the safety of staff and prisoners very seriously in our corrections system.'
'During a lockdown prisoners continue to have access to meals, healthcare, rehabilitation programs and legal services.
'We are continuing to recruit hundreds of new corrections staff, with a squad of new recruits starting training at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in this month and due to graduate in September.'
Corrections claims there have been no reports of green water coming from any taps at DPFC.
'Overcrowded, understaffed and unsafe'
Shadow Corrections Minister David Southwick told news.com.au Victoria's prisons are 'now in chaos and are overcrowded, understaffed, and unsafe'.
'Locking up women in their cells for days on end not because they've done anything wrong, but because the system can't find enough staff is unacceptable, unsafe, and no way to run a prison,' he said.
'This is not new. I raised serious concerns earlier this year, and since then I've continued to hear disturbing stories from inside Dame Phyllis Frost Centre; women missing medical care, family visits cancelled, and severe mental health impacts. It's not justice. It's neglect.
'Corrections officers are at breaking point. They tell me morale is at rock bottom. Staff don't feel safe, they don't feel supported, and they're leaving the system in droves. That's only making the crisis worse because the fewer officers we have, the more lockdowns we'll see.'