Page 194 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 December 2016
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Another serious security concern is that of the tragic death in custody in May this year. Issues of security are not just about keeping the broader community safe from people; but also about ensuring that those who are incarcerated are safe whilst they are in prison. They are sentenced to having their freedom removed, not their safety.
The corrections management general operating policy of 2009, which was the time of the prison’s opening, stated that:
The AMC is to be a secure and safe place that will have a positive effect on the lives of prisoners and corrections officers. The management and operation of the AMC will be in accordance with human rights principles and will give substance to the dictum that prisoners are sent to prison as punishment, not for punishment.
Not my words, the words of the now 15-year-old Labor government’s own manual. There are a range of questions that need to be addressed with regard to this issue, and clearly the current series of reviews into this particular event, as well as others, has not been completely concluded. However, the prison has had numerous reviews into its operation, some of them public and, no doubt, some of them in the hands of government.
As my motion states, over the eight years of operation, the prison has had the following reviews, including recommendations undertaken into its performance: the Hamburger review in 2011; the Burnet review in 2011; the Auditor-General’s report into rehabilitation of male detainees in 2015; the human rights commissioner’s report into human rights compliance of the care of female detainees; and the Justice and Community Safety Committee report into sentencing looking at some of the throughcare and other issues around detainees’ sentencing and release.
I also note that overcrowding and capacity issues continue to some extent. In relation to my comments on overcrowding, I refer to the end of last year with the additional prisoner accommodation opening and being full within a month. I would love to be enlightened about that problem not being ongoing.
Detainees’ participation and completion rates of training courses are unfortunately low. I have anecdotally received information that detainees are signing up to courses so that they can get a library card—which is in and of itself a good thing—but then not attending those courses because they can maintain their library card even without attending the courses.
Mr Rattenbury: Outrageous.
MRS JONES: Well, that is just anecdotally what I have been told. So, anyway, that is just an additional—
Mr Rattenbury: So it is bad they want to go to the library? Come on.
MRS JONES: No, it is bad that they are not completing their education courses, minister. Industry placements for job training are rather limited at present, but I
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