Page 1135 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 25 March 2015
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(b) current systems and policies are in place at the AMC to deter and detect contraband such as mobile phones within the jail;
(c) a trial of phone jamming technology at Lithgow Correctional Centre has been in development since 2002 and has yet to be finalised;
(d) every jail in Australia faces challenges regarding the use of telecommunications and emerging technologies; and
(e) briefings on these issues are available to Members of the ACT Legislative Assembly upon request.”.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (3.41): Labor members will be supporting Mr Rattenbury’s amendment this afternoon. I am acutely aware of the challenges often faced by our Corrective Services authorities in preventing the entry of prohibited and unauthorised items into the Alexander Maconochie Centre. ACT Corrective Services, as in other jurisdictions, employs various security measures designed to prevent the entry of prohibited items into the AMC.
It is always worth highlighting this, because the measures are quite comprehensive. There are physical searches by both Corrective Services officers and passive alert detector dogs which are trained to detect illicit substances. There are metal detectors and X-ray scans of both people and goods that are transported into the AMC. And there is a strong intelligence-sharing basis with the police. A number of these measures were part of the original design of the AMC in anticipation of contraband issues and in recognition of the challenges that are faced by other jurisdictions when it comes to contraband.
Preventing the entry of contraband into prisons remains a challenge for all jurisdictions. This is not unique to the ACT. And it is worth highlighting that even in the most so-called secure facilities, like the super max facility at Goulburn jail, contraband enters from time to time. Unfortunately the entry of contraband into a prison is often driven by drug-taking behaviour, and the same is the case at the AMC.
ACT Corrective Services acknowledge that many detainees come to custody with an alcohol or drug addiction. A significant number of offences relate directly to that addiction. For this reason the AMC runs a broad number of therapeutic and rehabilitative programs to assist detainees to become drug free and provide strategies to help detainees remain drug free. These include the self-management and recovery training, or SMART, program. This program assists people to recover from their addiction regardless of the type of addiction. Corrective Services staff deliver this program using a co-facilitation model with Directions ACT staff.
The first steps relapse prevention program aims to support participants as they go through the challenges faced when ceasing or reducing substance use. And then there is, of course, the Solaris Therapeutic Community’s alcohol and other drugs program which is operated in partnership with Karralika. Solaris Therapeutic Community is a four-month, live-in treatment facility within the AMC in which the community of
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