Page 3875 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 15 December 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I am pleased to be able to advise that, in relation to the improvement of services to prisoners, some of the recommendations have already been taken up. A new agreement with New South Wales that includes clear standards of treatment, prisoner placement policies and costing definitions has been signed. A new system of notification of complaints to, and the results of investigations by, New South Wales official visitors in relation to ACT prisoners has also been agreed upon. A prisoner information booklet to provide prisoners and their families with information on conditions in New South Wales prisons has been drafted and circulated widely for comment. Members might recall that Chief Magistrate Cahill launched that some weeks ago. Measures to improve prisoner liaison will be considered by this Government in the context of the 1993-94 budget.
The proposed new corrections legislation will include provision for transitional release of prisoners, designed to assist in their successful reintegration into the ACT community. A feasibility study into the establishment of a bail/probation hostel will be conducted. These reforms are consistent with the Government's response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and many of the proposed changes directly meet important recommendations of that royal commission.
Replacement of the current Remand Centre, with its outmoded architecture and high operating costs, is clearly a matter which must be addressed by the Government. The Government will conduct a feasibility study into the provision of custodial facilities in the ACT. A detailed analysis of construction and management options will be undertaken to allow the Government to select the most appropriate arrangement that will satisfy social justice concerns and provide the most cost-effective solution for the ACT's longer-term needs.
I agree that ideally the Belconnen Remand Centre should not be converted or used for other correctional purposes. However, economic considerations may support the use of this facility for some other programs, provided that social justice concerns can be met. It may, for instance, be appropriate to use this facility to trial new programs and assess effectiveness before capital is committed. Therefore, I propose to review this situation in the light of the impact of the other sentencing reforms.
The recommendations that relate to improving the services for mentally ill offenders are, to a large extent, answered by the recent government decision to establish an ACT Mental Health Tribunal and a forensic psychiatry service. The needs of intellectually disabled offenders will be carefully considered in the studies undertaken into the custodial and non-custodial programs. The need to consider them separately from other special category groups is supported.
The recommendations that relate to the administrative amalgamation of corrective services and juvenile justice were rejected, after careful consideration, on the grounds that common administrative support already exists within the Housing and Community Services Bureau; and the need to maintain and reinforce links between services for juvenile offenders and services for family and youth, in conjunction with the need to maintain clear separation between adult and juvenile corrections, so that we do not set up the expectation that young offenders will graduate to becoming adult offenders.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .