Page 581 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011
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segregation. This is not a black-and-white matter, and context is important. I have been out to the AMC on three occasions now and have seen that for myself.
We have services such as the therapeutic community, which is a highly important and integral part of assisting rehabilitation for prisoners; we would not in any circumstances want to lose this service. It does use one of the cottages, which impacts on configurations and capacity and on where other inmates can be housed. And there is a well-known long-term inmate who requires segregation, which also impacts on prison configuration.
This is how all prisons around Australia and across the world in fact operate. Yes, you aim to have a certain capacity but, due to the type and level of prisoners you have, this impacts on the numbers. And, as I mentioned, services such as the therapeutic community, which are essential and forward thinking, impact on capacity, but you need those sorts of services. This is something which also fluctuates regularly. We know that a significant number of prisoners are direct release, meaning that in many circumstances they may be in the AMC for only a short time.
The concern for me with this would be about the impact this may have on some prisoners’ safety. This should be the paramount concern. We should not be working to a 300 prison population just because that is the stated capacity and ignoring what impacts this would have on keeping inmates—and also staff—safe.
For clause (1)(a)(iii), and the drug testing of prisoners on entry to the AMC, I will say that I found Mr Corbell to have acted with integrity as the minister on this issue. When it became apparent that he and Mr Stanhope had been provided with the wrong advice, and that the advice had then been provided to the chamber, Mr Corbell corrected the record both outside and inside the chamber, and he has responded to the issue behind this by asking Mr Hamburger to look at it and include it as part of the review. Because of Mr Corbell’s actions on this matter to date, the Greens will not be supporting the censure. The true test of the minister may, however, be ahead of him if and when he has to respond to any findings about mismanagement or disrespect within corrections management or staff.
As to the allegation by Mr Hanson that this demonstrates that the ACT government is incapable of running a needle and syringe program at the prison, I draw to Mr Hanson’s attention the work of ACT Health at the prison, in that they are the ones responsible for blood testing prisoners—as compared to urine testing. The real data about the rates of blood-borne virus infections comes from that blood analysis. The Greens have proposed that if an NSP was to be introduced into the AMC, it could potentially be run through the health centre, which addresses concerns which have been raised by representatives of the corrections officers.
On clause 1(b), again this is old ground and we have had a committee inquiry look into the matter quite thoroughly. Going to clause 3(a), the minister has already explained to the chamber how the AMC operates and what this means for capacity.
On clause 3(b)(ii), I am extremely cautious about arguments Mr Hanson has put forward about having New South Wales prisoners come to the AMC and having even more prisoners held there. It should not be the goal of any party to have a full prison
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