Prison Pandemic preparations praised

Media release
A report tabled in State Parliament today has praised the Department of Justice for its prison pandemic preparations at the State’s main adult receival facility, Hakea Prison.
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Hakea RATS and Vaccination

The report by the Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services (OICS) acknowledged the “robust” infection detection and prevention measures implemented at Hakea in relation to prisoner handover at reception, health screens and testing and hygiene and isolation protocols.

With the highest volume of prisoner movements of any custodial facility, Hakea faced a far greater risk from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Corrective Services Commissioner Mike Reynolds said community spread of COVID-19 ultimately impacted prisons and Hakea was hit hard this March with a peak of 220 positive prisoners.

“At the same time, hundreds of prisoners also had to be placed in isolation as close contacts,” Commissioner Reynolds said.

“But the comprehensive pandemic preparations undertaken by the Department’s COVID-19 Taskforce, Health Services and Hakea management around isolation, contact tracing and infection controls have served the facility well, and as of this morning there were only 15 positive prisoners there.

“I’m pleased to report that no WA prisoners have needed hospitalisation as a result of COVID-19.”

Of the 21 recommendations in the OICS report, the Department supported, or supported in principle, 17, noted one and three were not supported.

Although many of the recommendations centred on mental health services, Commissioner Reynolds welcomed OICS’ recognition of the “remarkable job” staff were doing at the prison’s Crisis Care Unit (CCU).

“The Department is doing its best to manage a challenging cohort of prisoners with significant mental health needs. We acknowledge more needs to be done, and to that end have a number of initiatives underway or under consideration.

“We engaged former OICS Inspector Neil Morgan to review our At Risk Monitoring System and Support and Monitoring System processes.

“Based on Mr Morgan’s work, the Department established a working group to focus on improvements to these systems and provide role specific training and support to staff tasked with chairing the Prisoner Risk Assessment Group.

The Department is also working to reintegrate its Health Services and Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs streams to enhance the quality of health service delivery for prisoners.

Looking ahead, acute mental health patients and the elderly and infirmed at Hakea will be transferred to a dedicated facility once the Casuarina 344 Bed Expansion project is completed.

Commissioner Reynolds welcomed the Inspector’s acknowledgment of the good culture and performance at Hakea’s Management Unit (Unit 1) where staff looked after prisoners “who had complex needs and were at times were highly volatile”.

Due to infrastructure limitations, Hakea’s population has been reduced to release the pressure on the accommodation units.  As of this morning, the prisoner population at Hakea was 903, which represents 76.9 per cent of capacity.