Queensland prison officers are being issued with body cameras to reduce the rate of assault and collect better evidence.

The first cameras will be allocated to staff at the Brisbane Correctional Centre this week, with a statewide rollout planned for coming months.

The devices match gear already worn by Queensland Police, which can store up to nine hours of high-quality footage.

Union officials have been calling for a response to increasing assault rates in prisons, which are more than 22 per cent over capacity.

Corrections Minister Mark Ryan says “assaults go up and down all the time”, and that “if you look at it over a period of time, you will see peaks and troughs of assaults in correctional centres”.

“What matters is we are rolling out additional measures to keep our staff safe and these cameras will assist with that.

“We're dealing with people with complex needs, people with mental health needs and we would be naive to think that unfortunately there would never be any assaults in prisons.”

Mr Ryan said the cameras would provide evidence against vexatious complaints from prisoners, and provide more reliable evidence in other cases.

The State Government has previously committed $6 million for 2,700 police body cameras, while security officers have been issued cameras in some Queensland hospitals as well.