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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 4 Hansard (16 April) . . Page.. 906 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

I am also aware, Mr Speaker, from another document that I have, that the Remand Centre appears to be accommodating rather more detainees than it did, certainly on the last occasion that I visited the centre. The document that I have is a list of detainees in custody as of midnight on 14 April 1996. It indicates that there were 41 detainees in custody on that night. That appears to me to be a very high number indeed. If you take into account that there may well be other detainees being held in police cells, it seems to me that we have an awful lot more people in that kind of custody than I recall as being the case.

From the analysis that is done of the detainees on this document, Mr Speaker, we can also see that, of the 41 detainees, three are identified as being Aboriginal people, three are identified as being women, and seven are identified as being at risk. It seems to me that, with a mix of that kind out at the Remand Centre, we have a quite high work level for the staff there. There were clearly different kinds of people with different requirements in detention there at midnight on 14 April, and seven of the 41 were identified as being at risk.

Mr Speaker, I have also had a look at the length of time that people have been on remand, and that is very revealing because it indicates that, for some people, being in the Belconnen Remand Centre is a very lengthy process indeed. The longest detention on the list that I have is 201 days. That seems to me to be a very long time to be on remand. There are several people who have been there for more than 100 days, and at least half have been there for around 40 or 50 days. One person is identified here as having been on remand for 867 days. It is my view that that is a typo and it should be 86 or 87, simply from the way those numbers flow. I find it most unlikely that anybody would have been held for 867 days without it coming to my attention. Mr Speaker, I think that is probably a typo. But, 201 days? There are two people who have been there for 162 days. These are lengthy periods and it is causing me some concern. If you put that document together with the article from the Canberra Times of Wednesday, 20 December, which indicates that times taken to reach verdicts in the ACT, in the opinion of the writer of the article, Ms Nicole Leedham, appear to be much lengthier than in other jurisdictions, I think we have a troubling situation here.

I would like to say in mitigation of both of these documents that, in respect of the list of detainees at the Belconnen Remand Centre, every one has an appearance listed before either the Magistrates Court or the Supreme Court, and the wait for those appearances is quite short, quite reasonable - a week or two in most cases. The argument that Ms Leedham has made in her article is the conviction time, the time that the courts take to reach their conclusions. The Chief Magistrate has argued against the findings that Ms Leedham has put forward; nevertheless, I think the figures have some merit and deserve to be studied.

Mr Speaker, I seek to table all three of those documents, for the information of members. I hasten to add, in respect of the list of detainees in custody, that I have removed all of the names, the personal identifiers, but not the analysis of what category of detainee they fall into.

Leave granted.

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