Legislation to establish an independent inspector to oversee the State’s detention facilities has been introduced into Parliament.
Attorney-General, Shannon Fentiman said the inspectorate would cover adult correctional facilities, youth detention centres and police watchhouses.
Ms Fentiman said the Bill would create further oversight into the State’s detention facilities to prevent harm and to improve detention services.
“The proposed Inspector of Detention Services will have broad powers to inspect all of these facilities as well as review detention services that are provided at a place of detention,” she said.
“We committed to introducing this role in response to recommendations from a range of independent reviews into the Queensland criminal justice system, including the Sofronoff Review, the Taskforce Flaxton report and the Independent Review of Youth Detention”.
Ms Fentiman said while many of the places of detention had existing accountability and oversight frameworks, there was no one body responsible for the independent oversight of these facilities’ operations through a system of regular inspections.
Minister for Police and Corrective Services, Mark Ryan said the inspector would have the power to conduct both pre-arranged and random inspections of a place of detention and would also review or monitor a detention service at any time.
“The inspector will also conduct mandatory annual inspections of youth detention centres and undertake inspections at least once every five years of high security sections of prisons and major watchhouses,” Mr Ryan said.
“Responsibilities of the role also include preparing and publishing standards in relation to the conduct of inspections, reporting to the Legislative Assembly on their inspection outcomes, and recommendations,” he said.
