Page 4353 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 27 November 2013
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acknowledgement that history has proven that we needed greater capacity at the AMC, and that work is now underway and is being pushed forward as expeditiously as it can, in acknowledgement of the fact that there is pressure. Of course, it is a challenging project in an operating custodial environment to build more cell space. It is a challenging job, but I am confident that JACS are very focused on it and they are moving as quickly as they can to ensure that that is put in place. And I will be interested to hear Mr Hanson’s views on what that capacity should be, whether he supports the increase in capacity, and the expenditure that will be necessary for that.
Mr Hanson did raise some issues around suggestions that came out of the recent roundtable. He cited one. There were a number of issues that were raised, and I have provided those in media comment, including where the bracelets came up. But the observation I made to the Canberra Times when I was asked about the outcomes of that roundtable was that a range of issues were discussed; some were more immediate, others were longer term. For example, people said, “We need to increase capacity.” The government has already moved to do that.
Other issues were raised about the need to keep focusing on the through care program in order to reduce recidivism. There is strong support for that piece of work. There is a sense that that enhanced through care program and the extended support that former detainees receive have real potential for impact on recidivism figures. They were some of the other ideas that came out.
There were longer term discussions about the need for a focus earlier in life by children and young people’s support services. The directors-general and senior staff from those parts of the ACT government who were there spoke about perhaps the longer term issue being that if we intervene earlier in a child’s life we may ultimately avoid them going to the AMC, but that becomes a sort of a decade-long response mechanism.
Yes, certainly the issue of electronic tagging bracelets was raised at that meeting. At the start of the meeting that day, the roundtable, I undertook that JACS would look at all of the options that were raised and canvass whether they were viable for the ACT. On the specific issue of bracelets, I have indicated already that the potential for that in the ACT is limited. Because of other factors, they can generally only be applied in lower risk cases. There is a particular cohort of detainees for whom electronic tagging would be suitable, and there is a sense that in the ACT we have a very limited number of people in that group. But what I can I assure Mr Hanson is that it will not simply be me or the superintendent of the AMC deciding that some individual prisoner is suitable.
I think electronic tagging would need to be a sentencing option that is available to the judiciary. The judiciary sets the sentences. That is how it works. So it is not simply going to be the way Mr Hanson suggested it might be, and I hope that clarification assists. That said, I have asked JACS to look at the viability of the bracelet option, to look at, for example, the cost effectiveness in the ACT, given the smallness of our jurisdiction. Could we tag onto a New South Wales system? One should ask these questions. The answer may prove to be that it is not suitable for the ACT. But I would be remiss, as the minister, to not be ensuring that these options were being investigated.
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