The ACT Government has agreed to 61 of the 71 recommendations made in the Inspector of Correctional Services’ first health review of the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC).
The Inspector, Neil McAllister, found that while the AMC had the ingredients to be a ‘healthy prison’, more needed to be done to address key issues across all four ‘pillars’ of the healthy prison framework.
The pillars are safety, respect and dignity, purposeful activity, and rehabilitation and preparation for release.
Responding to the Inspector’s report, the Government agreed to seven recommendations in principle, noted three but did not agree with two.
The disagreed recommendations were for ACT Corrective Services to provide male and female peer support workers in the admissions centre to support detainees on their arrival to AMC and that a new administration officer position be created in the Indigenous Services Unit.
Mr McAllister welcomed the Government’s positive response saying it would lead to significant improvements for detainees and staff at the AMC.
“We have already seen some encouraging progress at the AMC since the review was tabled in November 2019, such as the notification of updated and revised policies and procedures,” Mr McAllister said.
“We look forward to continuing to monitor the implementation of these recommendations to ensure their objectives are met.”
He said that some systemic issues identified in the review would not be easy to resolve.
“The report found that high detainee numbers and the large number of cohorts that do not mix create difficulties across the AMC, including reducing time out of cells and restricting access to work and education,” Mr McAllister said.
He said resolving those issues would require work in the broader justice sector as the AMC could not control how many detainees entered the centre.
The Government’s 27-page response to the Inspector’s Review can be accessed at this PS News link.
The next Healthy Prison Review of the AMC is scheduled for 2021.
