The union representing prison officers says inmates at one of the country's biggest jails are being forced to sleep on cell floors because of an over-crowding crisis.
The Community and Public Sector Union say a lack of staff forced Hobart's Risdon Prison into lock down on Father's Day meant inmates were unable to make phone calls to their families.
The union says lock downs are regular as guards struggle to handle the number of inmates, with units handling more than 120 in areas set up for only 84.
In August 40 inmates were involved in an eight hour stand-off with wardens over the phasing out of a nicotine replacement program.
CPSU reports this occured after the program had been in place for two years because inmates were seen to be standing over other inmates for patches.
General Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union Tom Lynch represents Correctional Officers in the Tasmanian Prison Service. He says the prison is a pressure cooker and tensions have been rising in the Risdon Prison Complex for a long time.
"These are sentenced prisoners within a modern prison facility that was designed to have one person in a cell that now have two and on occasions three people in the cell with mattresses on the floor"
The Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in Detention in the Northern Territory has investigated incidents in youth corrections facilities where overcrowding, under staffing and lack of training for the Corrections staff places detainees at risk.
Tom Lynch says he is hearing this across every jurisdiction in Australia for adult facilities.
"In Western Australia it's probably the worst, a few years ago we had prisons being erected from shipping containers in order to house the additional inmates they were cramming in there. In South Australia they've got inmates being held in Police watch houses, this is big problem around the country."
Mr Lynch is frustrated that the federal government is not being seen to do anything to alleviate the problem.
"Putting people in jail is expensive. It's certainly more expensive that dealing with their issues and trying to keep them out of prison."
Listen to the podcast of Tom Lynch speaking to NITV Radio about the crisis in the Risdon Prison Complex.
