WHAT: SA’s Sheriff’s vote on statewide strike
WHEN: 7.45am Thursday the 11th of December 2025 (today)
WHERE: Sir Samuel Way, Victoria Square, Adelaide
MORE INFO:
SA Justice System collapses as Sheriffs & DPP lawyers vote to join Corrections Officers in indefinite lockdown
South Australian Sheriffs, crown solicitors and lawyers from the Department of Public Prosecutions will vote at 7.45am this morning on whether to join Corrections Officers in an unprecedented 96 hour lockdown.
If Sheriffs walk off the job magistrates, district, supreme and high courts across SA will close.
Corrections Officers across seven of South Australia's prisons will also vote on whether to extend their strike action to 96 hours, which would plunge the prison system into a four day lockdown.
They will be joined by Home Detention Officers who will decide whether to extend their 24 hour strike to 48 hours. They are responsible for the ankle monitoring of 1500 offenders who've been sentenced to home detention by judicial officers.
This morning Corrections Officers will vote at stop work meetings at Yatala Labour Prison, Port Augusta Prison, Mobilong Prison, Port Lincoln Prison, Cadell Prison, Adelaide Women’s Prison, and the Adelaide Pre-Release Centre.
Over 2000 of the state’s prisoners have been confined to their cells since Monday at 7.30am.
Corrections Officers are striking over a marked rise in violence in prisons and a crisis in staffing fuelled by low wages which has seen an exodus of Corrections Officers to other careers.
On Sunday an inmate was savagely beaten into unconsciousness at Yatala - metal plates were surgically inserted into his face to hold it together. There were a further two bloody incidents last month at the same prison where inmates were bashed into unconsciousness.
In October a female inmate used a metal pole to inflict life threatening head and neck injuries on another inmate, severing a finger in the process. A female Corrections Officer had her hand broken while disarming the inmate.
Sheriffs, crown solicitors and DPP lawyers will likely join Corrections Officers and Home Detention Officers in their strike because the government refuses to listen to their concerns, says Charlotte Watson, General Secretary of the Public Service Association which represents these workers.
“While the SA Justice System system has been collapsing the Premier has been jetting off to Sydney to strut on the national stage,” said Ms Watson.
“We’ve warned the Premier the Corrections Officers, lawyers and Sheriffs who keep this state’s Justice System running have had enough of being ignored.
“If I were him I’d get on the next plane home and come at our stop work meeting to hear directly from our members.”
Contact: Tim Brunero 0405 285 547