Western Australia's prisons are overcrowded and inmates are in cells not up to national or international standards, a review has found, but the state government is unlikely to adopt half of the recommendations.
Inspector of Custodial Services Neil Morgan said inmate numbers had increased rapidly since 2009 and double-bunking compromised a prisoner's right to privacy and decent treatment, as well as being a risk to safety and rehabilitation.
He said routinely double-bunking single cells was in breach of the United Nations' Mandela Rules, which says the practice should only be an exceptional temporary measure.
Mr Morgan said design capacity was the most accurate way of measuring if a prison was too crowded, and on June 30 the WA prison system was at 148 per cent, or 97 per cent of modified capacity - a measure similar to the Department of Corrective Services reporting practices.
Even on the department's numbers, the system was above the 5-15 per cent buffer required and Mr Morgan expressed concern that the department's reporting to the Productivity Commission hid the extent of the problem.
Pressure at some facilities will be temporarily relieved when the new Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison is filled and when the women's prison at Hakea becomes fully operational next year.
But most prisons would continue to operate above capacity and the new facilities would not meet future demand, so a new prison was required, Mr Morgan said.
"Although the most obvious need is for a large metropolitan remand prison for men, the new prison needs to be designed with flexibility to cater for different groups."
Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis announced on Sunday cabinet had approved planning for a new prison.
Six recommendations were made in the report, but the department has only given in-principal support to three and has refused to return to design capacity as the measure for crowding.
"(Double-bunking) is a humane and secure approach to managing prisoners," the department insisted.
The department said in the past three years there had been a drop in escapes, assaults on staff and prisoner-on-prisoner attacks, and WA had some of the lowest recidivism rates in the nation.
"We are a corrective service and we provide value for money in security and rehabilitation."
Opposition spokesman Paul Papalia described overcrowded prisons as "crime universities" where minor offenders mixed with serious criminals and became more likely to reoffend.
"Growing bigger prisons is confirmation of failure, that's not a sign of success in fighting crime," he said.
Mr Papalia rejected suggestions the system waspayingthepriceforadecadeofpoorplanning in the mid-2000s when Labor was in power, and also refused to confirm whether the opposition would commit to a new prison if elected in March.
WA Prison Officers Union secretary John Welch accused the state government of covering up the extent of overcrowding and said plans for a new prison should have started three years ago.
"The government is so far behind the eight ball that our prisons are going to be overflowing by the time a new prison comes on line years down the track."
