Page 4691 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 27 November 2019
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Some of the other positive areas of improvement include the expansion of the Hume Health Centre, which is currently underway, and the inclusion of Winnunga Nimmityjah community health services as part of the delivery of health services at the AMC, the first time that has been done in Australia. I can tell you, Madam Speaker, that it has been challenging to put in place something like that when it has never been done before. But through the persistence of, frankly, everyone involved we have worked our way through that and delivered something that most people considered would be very difficult to achieve.
We have a new admissions process highlighted in the inspector’s report. This is a sensitive time for new detainees and staff alike and it is positive to see the ongoing work to respond to both some of the issues raised in the Moss review and new best practice methods being implemented in more recent times. The new induction policy, similar to the admissions process, is vital to the wellbeing and safety of detainees, and the inspector makes comment on that.
In respect of the management unit, there were periods in the AMC’s history when, due to population pressure and highly complex separation and segregation regimes, the management unit has been over-utilised. Through a combination of revisiting some of these issues, it is positive to see that it is now being far better utilised. In fact, generally there are very low numbers of people in it.
The inspector made some interesting observations around the dynamics of our jail. The report notes that more than 25 per cent of our detainees spend less than one year in prison. They note that in July 2019, 40 per cent of the total jail population was on remand. The report notes the incredible pressure that this churn places on the AMC. We need to deal with that. That is part of the job. But it is difficult in that sort of environment to create the right rehabilitative frameworks when you have people there for such a short periods of time, because it limits the ability to intervene. We need to find effective ways to intervene and to help people reset their life trajectories.
Let us be real about the situation that is in front of us. I particularly want to comment on the issue of women because this is an area that has been a real challenge for us. There has been a lot of commentary, including in this report and in other places. I have had significant discussions with members of the community—representative groups—about the decision to move the women from the cottages to the special care centre.
The move was based on a rapid increase in numbers that meant that there were more women than beds in the female part of the prison. We had women living in the management centre in temporary cells as well as in the women’s accommodation. That was incredibly unsatisfactory and unacceptable, so it was an improvement to move them into the special care centre.
It is not an ideal outcome and I can let members know that I have been meeting with community organisations, former detainees, current detainees, as well as oversight bodies to discuss these issues because I take this matter very seriously. We are very focused on improving that. I have been to the jail myself to inspect some of the issues
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