Page 187 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 2019
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Last time we ended up in this situation, it was a crisis point for the women. We had more women detainees than beds in the women’s section. I visited them and had guards who were stressing to me the need to do all we could to fix the problem. They were desperate to get the management unit and health unit beds back, as losing them had its own repercussions. They wanted the women to be appropriately housed as well.
I would like to acknowledge that, after many months, the minister did take action. It addressed the critical short-term problem of not having enough beds. However, I am concerned that the women now being housed in a higher security wing designed for men is not ideal—but at least there are enough beds. I would love to know if the minister considers this to be a permanent solution or whether the women will eventually go back to the cottage-style accommodation.
The women do not have grass, as they once did. They do not have purpose made and designed kitchens, which they once did, and which were acknowledged as being a part of their rehabilitation program. The aim of putting those women back into society in a better state to reintegrate into life is not being served as fully as it perhaps was in the designated women’s section.
The women now get to access supersized weightlifting equipment but no gardens. They do not get to venture outside much; presumably, if they do, it is onto the oval, which is there for the men to use and where their activity is probably visible to some of the men’s blocks and certainly would be visible from the men’s yards. This is not how the facility was designed to be used. In the original design the women were given time outside and, when they were, it was on grass. They could be involved in gardening programs and were not in sight of the men. Because the original designers of the facility understood the difference between men and women, and that there is, as we often refer to, a power imbalance in a prison, there is a certain amount of feeling menaced that the women would naturally experience, which is now not adequately managed, in my view.
However, this change in the women’s accommodation also makes me wonder if the total capacity number of 539 under maximum, urgent situations is actually perhaps less. If there are vacant beds in the women’s section but there is an overpopulation of male prisoners, we cannot mix them together; so, in reality, we could be even closer to ultimate capacity than we think.
The recently released human rights principles for correctional facilities in the ACT call for detainees to have access to more space, the outdoors, natural light and regular exercise. All of this is made more difficult when we are over the design capacity. It is clear that cramming two or three detainees into small cells designed for one is not the way to meet our future needs or our human rights targets and requirements.
Last year, when I went on medical leave to give birth, I hoped that perhaps the break from my commentary would give the minister time to reflect on and resolve the issues affecting our prison. He is an intelligent man; even if I disagree with him on some of his political views, I believe he could resolve these issues. However, here we are
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