Page 1407 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
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That the current capacity of 300 beds leads to challenges in separating and segregating detainees which places constraints on the delivery of services to detainees and the management of the safety and security of the correctional centre.
This is a particularly interesting point—and we know that there is the difference between the capacity and the bed numbers—because what we are hearing here is that the number of beds that this jail was delivered with, which is 300, is causing problems with safety and security.
But this is the minister that cut it from 374 beds to 300 beds in 2006 and told a committee of this Assembly that this had capacity for 25 years; there were no problems with doing that. But what we find out is that his decision, this government’s decision, to reduce the scope of the jail is now leading to problems with security and safety. And they are now having to put in temporary relief from overcrowding after one year of operations.
The other Hamburger report that was released—and I quote from this as well—is equally damning:
Since commissioning of the AMC there have existed systemic problems with governance in ACT Corrective Services that have resulted in management and supervision practices not being effective. This has led to various disconnections between ACT Corrective Services Head Office, the management team of the AMC and AMC staff at the workplace in relation to performance management.
This report, remember, was commissioned after Simon Corbell misled this Assembly and the Chief Minister misled this Assembly, saying that drug testing was actually occurring on admission to the AMC when it was not. And what this also shows is that the only reason that that was discovered—and this is in the report—was that a question on notice was asked by the opposition. So again, it is not because the government wanted to be open or accountable. It is because the opposition was doing the hard work and uncovered the failures at the jail that the minister had misled the Assembly about.
So Simon Corbell’s defence appears to be: “There has not been a disaster at the jail. I have gone a year without a disaster and that is my measure for success. Somehow, because there has been no death in custody, because there has been no riot—everything else has gone wrong but because there have not been those two events; there has not been an abject disaster—that is my measure for success.” If this minister is saying that the absence of a disaster is his measure for success, then I would contend that this is a benchmark too low for this Assembly. This is a benchmark too low for this government and a benchmark too low for the people of the ACT to expect from their ministers.
Simon Corbell will claim that the Liberals will say that we will eradicate all the drugs from the jail. That is not our position but what we will do is bring in procedures and we will run the place effectively to make sure the drugs are far harder to access than they are now, so that, rather than having a drug-free jail, as Simon Corbell, asserts that
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