The NSW government’s new mandatory sentencing laws will increase inmate numbers and put the safety of prison staff at risk, their union says.

The Public Service Association of NSW says funding cuts have left prisons with ‘dangerously low staffing levels’ and officers will struggle to cope with increased inmate numbers expected under the new ‘one-punch’ laws.

The O’Farrell government last month introduced tough new measures to curb drug and alcohol-fuelled violence following public outrage over the one-punch deaths of 18-year-olds Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie at Sydney’s Kings Cross.

The measures include an eight-year minimum mandatory sentence for fatal one-punch assaults if alcohol or drugs are involved, and other proposed mandatory minimums for serious assaults.

PSA General Secretary Anne Gardiner said on Wednesday that prison officers agreed that the community should not tolerate alcohol-fuelled violence.

But she says the prison officer to inmate ratio is already at dangerously low levels.

‘Unless this government is prepared to address these staffing ratios and the working conditions of prison staff, including the restoration of proper workers compensation provisions, any increase in inmate numbers is unacceptable.’

Ms Gardiner said that in some NSW jails with inmate populations of more than 300 inmates, it was not uncommon for there to be only 20 prison officers on duty at any one time.

She said the situation had been exacerbated by the O’Farrell government’s drive towards casualisation of the prison service.

Also there had been no recruitment drive for permanent prison officers for many years.

Unlike police, prison officers did not have access to proper workers compensation if they were assaulted, Ms Gardiner said.

Sky News – Jail guards ‘at risk’ under new laws