Mothers and partners of inmates at Sydney's Parklea prison are frustrated with a lack of communication and challenges navigating the health system, as a COVID-19 cluster balloons to 175.
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Some 164 Parklea inmates and 11 staff had tested positive to the virus by 8pm on Friday, NSW Health says.
The outbreak has worried Katarina, whose 20-year-old son is on remand at Parklea.
He was not given access to his ADHD medication, despite Katarina providing a letter from his psychiatrist and his prescription.
Left untreated, his condition makes it difficult to read people and social situations, which Katarina believes could put him at risk in a tense environment.
It wasn't until she engaged a lawyer that he was given a different drug.
"Why am I having to get legal intervention to get medical care which he should be entitled to, full stop," she said.
"If they can't do that properly, how on earth are they going to step up when the requirements of COVID are so onerous and it's so prevalent and it's so contagious?"
Another mother says she has complained to the Ombudsman about her son's treatment while on remand at Parklea.
The 20-year-old, who has disabilities, wasn't given his anti-psychotic medication when he first arrived.
She spent weeks trying to get information on his condition from the jail.
She only learned that he'd had surgery after being assaulted in the prison, once he was released on bail earlier this month.
"He had bruising to his ear and his head, stitches in his mouth, a broken nose and two massive black eyes," she said.
He was not given a COVID-19 vaccination despite agreeing to receive one, she said.
He now has to isolate for two weeks as he's been deemed a close contact of a COVID-19 case at the prison.
"We've had (my son) hallucinating, we've had a very traumatised young man that already was so vulnerable and his mental health issues have just exacerbated through the roof," the mother said.
Adele Graham, whose partner is in Parklea, first heard about the outbreak through social media and then media reports, but has not heard anything directly from the prison.
"The only (families) who have really heard anything is if they've got a call to say, your inmate's tested positive," she said.
"Even they are not necessarily getting regular updates."
Some 141 inmates were still being cared for at the prison on Friday afternoon, a spokesman from the prison's health care provider St Vincent's Health Network Sydney told AAP.
Most inmates are asymptomatic and none are seriously ill, the spokesman said.
Affected inmates are isolated and are being cared for by doctors, nurses and mental health specialists, the spokesman said.
Since vaccinations began in April, some 1092 doses have been administered to inmates, but it's unclear what proportion of current inmates have received the jab.
"As Parklea is largely a remand centre, many of the inmates vaccinated have left the prison since the rollout began," the spokesman said.
The prison's capacity is around 1300.
A spokesperson for MTC-Broadspectrum, which runs Parklea, said the prison had taken "appropriate health and safety measures" in light of the outbreak.
An investigation into its source is ongoing.
Parklea prisoners who may have been exposed to the virus were last month transferred to 23 other prisons before the extent of the outbreak was apparent, says Corrective Services NSW.
All tested negative. No Parklea cases have been transferred to other prisons since.
Australian Associated Press
