Page 2614 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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As members well know, over the last 12 months staff and management at the AMC have had to respond to intense accommodation pressures, with an increasing number of detainees. During the 2013 calendar year, the number of detainees increased significantly, from less than 240 in January 2013 to more than 340 in October 2013. Numbers have remained well above 300 since that time. The rapid rise in numbers during 2013 was unprecedented in the ACT, with a longer term increase that is part of a national trend, with many other states, including Victoria and New South Wales, also experiencing accommodation pressures. This is a trend right across the country. I recently returned from a meeting of corrective services ministers of state and territory jurisdictions; right across the country, prisons are facing significant accommodation pressures, particularly on the eastern seaboard, where rapid expansion programs are being undertaken.
The government in the ACT is responding to the increasing detainee numbers in this budget, as we did in the previous budget. The government is providing an additional $13.6 million in recurrent funding over four years for the costs of higher detainee numbers at the AMC. This initiative will provide additional staffing of approximately 18 FTE ongoing for Corrective Services and will fund increasing operating and detainee-related costs.
Also in the 2014-15 budget the government is providing $54.1 million in capital funding over two years to deliver additional detainee accommodation facilities at the AMC. This investment will provide for the construction of a new 30-cell, 30-bed special care centre and a new 56-cell, 80-bed flexible accommodation unit within the AMC’s existing perimeter fences. These facilities will provide an additional 110 operational beds across two buildings. The accommodation unit will also allow for additional surge capacity of 32 beds, which will mean its capacity can be increased from 80 beds up to 112 beds if required. This will bring the total beds delivered by the additional facilities to 142. As a result, total beds at the AMC will increase from the current total bed capacity of 370 up to 480, with surge capacity to 512.
Through a flexible approach to design, these facilities have features that will improve separation and segregation capabilities, a key issue at the AMC. A hub and spoke design will split the cells in each building across a number of independent wings. Simpler, more efficient detainee management will be enhanced, for example, by the inclusion of programs and interview rooms in each new facility, which will reduce the need for escorts to the dedicated programs building.
The special care centre is expected to come on line in the second half of 2015, and the accommodation unit is planned for completion in mid-2016.
It is important to note that the ACT government is not just building a bigger jail; we are building new facilities that will enhance our rehabilitative focus and allow for more therapeutic interventions while providing greater security to staff and the broader community. As the attorney has touched on, the Attorney-General and I will also pursue a new justice reform strategy focused on enhancing the legal framework for sentencing and restorative justice and including justice reinvestment research. The reforms will give the ACT a better approach to dealing with criminal behaviour and
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