Page 1651 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 May 2017
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(4) the Minister for Corrections will provide an update on recommendations that have been agreed to by Government that relate to the operations of the AMC to the Chair of the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety in May 2017; and
(5) the Minister for Corrections will make a statement to the Assembly by the last sitting day in May 2017 on these issues.
Madam Speaker, since the commencement of the AMC there have been eight external reports made on the operations of the AMC: the independent review of operations at the Alexander Maconochie Centre by Knowledge Consulting; the review of ACT Corrective Services governance, including in relation to drug testing, at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, by Knowledge Consulting; an external component of the evaluation of drug policies and services and their subsequent effects on prisoners and staff within the Alexander Maconochie Centre, by the Burnet Institute; a human rights audit on the conditions of detention of women at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, by the Human Rights and Discrimination Commissioner; the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety inquiry into sentencing; the review of rehabilitation of male detainees at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, by the Auditor-General; the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety inquiry into the Auditor-General’s report on rehabilitation of male detainees at the AMC; and the independent inquiry into the treatment in custody of Steven Freeman, by Mr Philip Moss AM.
I provide as an attachment to my statement a brief summary of the number of recommendations, including the number completed, the percentage of recommendations completed by each report, and a status update on these recommendations.
As members will see, since the time of the AMC opening in 2009, there have been 349 recommendations contained in these eight reviews. Some 297 of them can be considered to be directly relevant to the operations of ACT Corrective Services in running the AMC, with the remaining being in the remit of broader operations or external providers.
Engaging in and responding to each of these reviews has required significant resources and cooperation from Corrective Services and this work continues even today. As well as monitoring the implementation of those recommendations that the government of the day has agreed to, Corrective Services must maintain its ongoing relationships with the range of external oversight bodies such as the Ombudsman, who receives and investigates complaints from detainees at the AMC; the Human Rights and Discrimination Commissioner and the Public Advocate, who each have powers regarding detainee complaints and inspections of the AMC; the health services and disability commissioner, who receives complaints from detainees about health services; and the two official visitors, including an Indigenous official visitor, who attend the AMC on a regular basis, and receive and investigate detainee complaints.
A letter to the chair of the standing committee with a more detailed status update on recommendations resulting from the eight reviews has also been provided. It should
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