Page 254 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
indicated to the Assembly during question time earlier today, it will be reoffered shortly. Giving our prisoners every opportunity to rehabilitate is of the utmost importance to the government and will help meet community expectations of reduced recidivism and its impact on the community and the economy. Turning criminals into productive citizens can only be of great social and economic benefit.
Now I turn to the issue of the cost of running the prison. The cost of running a prison, per prisoner, per day, is influenced by a number of factors. I note that Mr Hanson has
called on the government to commence negotiations with New South Wales about housing New South Wales prisoners at the AMC. The government’s view is that we will not be exploring this option until all policies and procedures in place at the AMC have been put through a period of 12 months of operation.
Moreover, there has never been any indication that the New South Wales government would be interested in such an arrangement; an arrangement that would face considerable administrative hurdles, one of these being that prison numbers can fluctuate considerably and, despite the bed capacity of 300, the operational capacity is lower due to the need to separate different categories and classification of prisoners.
Again Mr Hanson shows his ignorance of some of the complex issues involved in the running of a facility such as this. Not only do we have different classifications of prisoners; within those classifications we have a further need to separate certain prisoners from other prisoners. We have prisoners on protection. We have prisoners on strict protection. We have prisoners who are not able to communicate and should not be allowed to communicate or interact with other prisoners across all classifications. Therefore, it is not the case that we can simply fill the prison to its complete capacity of 300, because the requirement to keep certain prisoners separate from other prisoners will inevitably mean that the full capacity of the prison will not be able to be utilised.
To this end, the government believes it is prudent and desirable that, after the AMC has been operational for 12 months, its policies, procedures, systems and processes be revisited and examined against the experience of delivering services for prisoners in the new setting. Furthermore, as members should be aware, the government is establishing a system of independent inspection of the AMC on an ongoing regular basis. I will make further announcements about that in due course.
In conclusion, let me say this: the AMC is an important and fundamental reform for the criminal justice system in the ACT. It is our opportunity to ensure that we do deliver best correctional practice, humane prisoner management and every opportunity for rehabilitation of our sentenced prisoners.
The decision to construct the facility was the correct one. Those on the other side of the house waxed and waned on this issue, supported it one year and did not support it the next, thought it was important at one time and then took cheap, base political advantage of it later. That is not the approach adopted by Labor. Labor has been consistent. Labor has sought at all times to advance the cause of a humane rehabilitative environment, which is needed if we are to take real responsibility for the administration of justice in our city.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video