Page 920 - Week 03 - Thursday, 10 March 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
This project has been delivered some four months early and approximately $7 million under budget. There can be little doubt that this project has been a solid success in that it has delivered these new accommodation facilities inside an operating prison under budget and months ahead of schedule. Its success is a credit to ACT Corrective Services, the JACS capital works and infrastructure unit and to the project’s managing contractor, Construction Control.
I was able to express my personal thanks and the thanks of the government to the key players in this project at an event at the AMC in February. Having already been given access to the special care centre in September 2015, the media joined me for a tour of the new accommodation unit in February, and I think all were as impressed as I was with these new facilities.
Through a flexible approach to design, these facilities have features that will improve separation and segregation capabilities. A hub-and-spoke design will split the cells in each building across a number of independent wings. Simpler, more efficient detainee management is being enhanced by the design of these new facilities. An example is the inclusion of programs and interview rooms in each new facility, which will reduce the need for escorts to the dedicated programs building.
Staff at the AMC are pleased, not just because the new buildings reduce some of the pressures in the AMC, but also because these new facilities are designed to meet the needs of both staff and detainees. Detainees are supportive because for those who have reached the point where they are ready to address offending behaviour, the new facilities offer the opportunity for more effective program delivery to discrete groups of detainees.
There is now greater choice about where to place detainees and whom to place them with. As a prudent additional step, when the new accommodation unit came online in February, ACT Corrective Services took the opportunity to move all detainees out of the special care centre and double-bunked most cells in that facility. What this means is that the AMC’s total bed capacity is now 539 beds. It has meant that within the existing project we have been able to notably increase capacity and extend the margin between detainee numbers and total bed capacity. For further information on AMC bed numbers and the various capacity definitions, I refer members to the JACS website.
With the new accommodation unit having come online in February, we have been able to deliver on the promise to cease accommodating AMC detainees at the facility in Symonston. The 30 detainees accommodated there have been moved back to the AMC, and Symonston is once again operating solely as a periodic or weekend detention facility.
The good news of our expansion project is tempered by the unfortunate reality that the great success of this project has occurred in the context of the expansion of the size of our prison. It has been well reported that we have seen really quite alarming growth in detainee numbers in recent years. While our experience is not isolated, as pretty much all Australian jurisdictions face intense prison accommodation pressures, it is still very sobering to go through this.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video