Page 4357 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 27 November 2013
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In that respect I do acknowledge the effort that has gone into this by the portfolio minister in having a round table, in talking with everybody about what could have led to this increase in population, and subsequently what to do about it. The round table—I think the first one has been held—from the brief back to me was extremely informative about some of the pressures that the system is under and there was a commitment from all stakeholders to work together to look for solutions.
The cabinet has had this issue presented to them a number of times by Mr Rattenbury and we have agreed to some work being done to look at increasing the capacity beyond what it currently is, at 366. The government has allocated $3 million for design works on the prison expansion. This will enable the development of plans for new accommodation to respond to further increases in prisoner numbers.
This is a situation that is being actively managed. I think it is reflective that, again, the stump speech being rolled out by Mr Hanson—
Mr Coe: This is turning into a stump speech yourself.
MS GALLAGHER: There is never any looking forward or any solutions; it is going back to issues that were being well examined and argued over in the previous electoral term and not wanting to give anyone advice. But the government has been measured on those. We have been measured on them and the community has had a say. Now, this is about dealing with the new issues that have arisen really in the last 10 months, with the significant increase in population that has been seen at the AMC. There are never any solutions or policy thinking. There is never any acknowledgement of the reality with which services are provided in the AMC, and the fact that the staff in corrections and in justice have done a tremendous job in managing what can only be described as an unforeseen increase in the prisoner population.
I know people will go to one set of projections that supports the numbers at the time, but when you go back, the Treasury projection in 2009 was for 226 prisoners; we had 154. They have jumped around. The prison was not full when it opened; it was under all of the projections that had been indicated. I think the Walker projections for 2009 were that there would be 314 prisoners. There were half that many. And they have tracked along at a reasonable rate of increase until about February this year, when we saw a very significant increase in prison population, and that has been somewhat maintained. I think the last figure I saw was 334 prisoners in custody at the moment.
I think the amendment is a sensible one. It acknowledges the decisions that are being taken. It acknowledges that the population has increased and it commends the staff for their work and how they have responded to these pressures. It also allows for the Minister for Corrections to continually update the Assembly regarding developments at the AMC. We can spend the next three years going on about what projections were right and what ones should have been used to inform the building of the jail or we can look forward and work out the practical response to the prison population we have now. The government will choose the second one of those.
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