Lawyers say the Northern Territory should scrap mandatory sentencing due to issues at Darwin's prison.

Power outages at Darwin's adult prison have delayed court appearances, and come alongside concern about overcrowding, lockdowns, sleeping conditions and staffing shortages. 

The Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory (CLANT) says the power outages “meant inmates cannot communicate with their lawyers … [resulting] in potential breaches of procedural fairness”.

CLANT says inmates also report problems with running water and a lack of basic hygiene facilities inside the prison.

Inmates have been “forced to utilise bottled drinking water to flush toilets, multiple days during lockdowns, without access to showers and hygiene products or clean clothes”, the group said in a statement. 

“The current conditions may breach fundamental human rights and international laws,” CLANT said.

CLANT says the prison conditions add an extra layer of harshness to the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing and tough bail laws.

“If Darwin Prison cannot accommodate the needs of prisoners, then the community is at greater risk of continued crime,” the group said.

“We can create a safer community, reduce crime and re-offending, and save taxpayer money by revoking mandatory sentencing and strict bail laws that have continually proven to be ineffective in tackling crime [and] … acknowledging we cannot incarcerate our way to a safer society.”

The union representing Northern Territory prison workers says power outages can create safety issues for staff.

“There have been a couple of occasions where officers feared for their safety and considered walking off,” United Workers Union secretary Erina Early has told the ABC.

She said staffing is an “ongoing issue” too.

“Officers are exhausted, working additional hours to make sure their work colleagues are safe in the prisons [because] they cannot fill shifts,” she said.

“We have been advised that there is a real focus on recruitment for 2022.”

Northern Territory's Attorney-General, Chansey Paech, says power outages were due to a planned electrical system upgrade, and claimed there was “minimal impact to prisoners receiving phone calls from outside of the facility”.

But, he said, the territory government will look at “proposals for reform of mandatory sentencing provisions, community-based sentences and offender programs”.

“The Territory Labor Government is committed to sentencing reform that improves community safety, puts victims first and breaks the cycle of crime. We want sentences to be appropriate to the crime, and programs [that] address the root causes of crime,” he said.

“As part of this reform, evidence-based rehabilitation and behaviour change programs and alternatives to custody facilities will be established to deliver appropriate sentencing options,” he said.