SA prison officers threaten lockdown

South Australian prison officers have threatened to lockdown jails, saying the government is investing in sniffer dogs at the expense of staff.

The Department of Corrective Services is in the early stages of recruiting staff for a full-time "dog squad", which will cost $837,000 per year.

It will be the first time the department has had its own team of sniffer dogs in three years, with prisons previously relying on dogs provided by SA police to sniff out contraband.

The plan comes as the department looks to find $5 million in budget savings this financial year, partly driven by a government-imposed 1 per cent efficiency dividend on all agencies.

Public Service Association chief industrial officer Peter Christopher says the union has been told up to 50 prison officers would need to be sacked for the department to meet that savings target.

The state's prisons were at capacity, he said, with two Adelaide police stations forced to house long-term prisoners in overnight cells.

"We've actually reached what we believe to be the absolute safe limit that jobs can be cut to," he told AAP.

"(The department) can't have a demand that savings be found and then at the same time spend money on activities that members who work in the field see as not urgent or necessary at this time."

He said prison officers had made it clear they would put jails across the state into either full or partial lockdowns if the department proceeded with the plan.

"Members are already overworked and they work in a horrendous environment which is getting worse every day because of the overcrowding," he said.

Correctional Services Minister Tony Piccolo said the dog squad would help to address the "major challenge" posed by gangs who smuggled drugs and weapons into prisons.

"Having a dog squad is integral to fighting contraband," he said in a statement.

"It is the best way to maintain a safe and secure system. It would be unfair and unreasonable to ask us to be the only state in Australia without one."