Page 4685 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 27 November 2019
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found three days later in regional New South Wales and the other found almost two weeks later, allegedly having managed to get his girlfriend pregnant during that time.
As well as escapes from custody, earlier this year three women escaped their compound to meet up with a male detainee, one of whom was out of sight of CCTV for 14 minutes, possibly engaging in sexual activity with the male detainee.
The AMC has one of the highest rates of inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-officer assault rates. The AMC is one of the more dangerous places to be locked up and one of the most dangerous places to work. Inaction on occupational violence is not good enough, which is why I brought forward my bill to the Assembly to protect corrections officers and justice health staff.
Earlier this month, on Wednesday, 6 November, a state of emergency was declared at the AMC. It followed the discovery of a hole in the fence—not discovered until the day after it had occurred—and fears that contraband including firearms and tasers had been smuggled into the facility. The state of emergency was extended once and lasted just a day less than a week. Staff, detainees and their families held grave concerns for the safety of those inside the facility.
From what I hear on the ground it was a chaotic experience with little or no policies and procedures in place. Management and staff were fearful that a firearm may have been smuggled into the facility, so staff were directed to search every inch of the prison. The trouble is that staff had not been previously trained in how to search for, manage and confiscate firearms, so they felt completely helpless. They were also not being given adequate protection, so if there was a firearm they were left vulnerable.
There was an accidental release of an inmate. On 16 December 2017 a detainee who was supposed to have remained in prison on a further remand warrant was mistakenly released. The released inmate remained on the streets of Canberra for approximately three days before prison staff realised their mistake and issued a notice to the police for his re-arrest. Two years later and absolutely nothing has improved. The Chief Minister continues to tolerate this minister’s dismal performance. The minister seems completely unwilling to fix or incapable of fixing the mess that is the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
Drug use and abuse is rampant inside the AMC. Take this headline from the Canberra Times of 9 March 2019: “Almost 30 per cent of AMC inmates report heroin use while in Canberra's adult jail”. In July this year we heard of yet another overdose inside the prison, this time a woman inmate. I understand it was so serious that she was rushed to hospital. How is illicit drug abuse so rampant? How is it that day after day and year after year in the job the minister continues to tolerate it, shrugs his shoulders and say it is a war we cannot win?
Methadone use in the facility varies between 20 and 40 per cent of inmates, much higher than many other jurisdictions, with Victoria varying between 10 and 15 per cent. Many prisoners may take methadone as something to do in an otherwise unstructured day. Others have reported that they were encouraged to increase their
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