Page 200 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 December 2016
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site, to be right at the finishing stages of that and have a situation where detainees were able to take advantage of that construction process to facilitate an escape is incredibly disappointing and embarrassing. But it is a real shame because, given how successful that project had been, it was an unfortunate incident to have happen right towards the end of the project.
There are, of course, both inevitable and avoidable difficulties facing every correctional system in the country, and we are not immune from these. I notice, for example, that Mrs Jones spoke extensively about mobile phones being used to post selfies on Facebook and film a video. She expressed some concern about both phones and fights. But unfortunately both of these things do happen in jail systems. Even the Goulburn supermax, the one with the absolute highest maximum security in all of the New South Wales correctional system, has phones smuggled into it. It is an ongoing problem and I will be happy to have Corrective Services staff brief Mrs Jones on the changing technological opportunities that detainees are taking advantage of to get around existing security systems. These are very challenging. It is an arms race in that sense and we are continuing to strive to keep up with that arms race.
I also note that Mrs Jones made reference to continuing overcrowding and capacity issues. I can assure Mrs Jones that, since we opened the additional accommodation facilities, accommodation is not an issue and that we do have adequate capacity at the AMC. I am very pleased about that. It was clear that we needed additional capacity at the AMC and I think many of the challenges that we have faced at the AMC have come about as a result of the accommodation pressures that face the facility.
We have a multi-classification jail. We have high rates of necessary separation due to the close relationships people have in this community where many people know each other and where that can provide security concerns, and we have seen examples of that in the past. These have all been real challenges but the new accommodation not only provides additional capacity but I believe is better designed to enable greater degrees of separation so that security can be better managed within the AMC.
I simply put it like this: I think the corrections system is at the end of what I consider to be its first chapter. Later this week or quite soon we will have completed the work on the industry facilities at the AMC and a range of other facilities on site. Through the course of my term as corrections minister I believe that we have been able to put in place some of the key building blocks for the completion of that facility—the additional accommodation and the provision of prison industries. These are essential facilities.
I believe that, with the completion of those facilities, we close the first chapter of the AMC. We get to the end of the first chapter. I do not want to say “close it” because I am not trying to close anything. I believe we have reached a point in the journey where we have got to the end of that first chapter and we are now starting a second chapter where we have got the jail we need. We are now starting to focus on a range of other issues; that we will continue to strive to improve that facility and to pursue the high aspirations that the government has and that our community rightfully has for the operation of a modern correctional facility in the ACT.
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