Wooroloo Prison report tabled in Parliament

16/08/00

Attorney General Peter Foss said today that he was pleased that problems identified during an official inspection of Wooroloo Prison Farm late last year had been substantially addressed.
Mr Foss made the comment while tabling in Parliament the reports of two inspections of the prison by the interim Custodial Services Inspection Team from the Ministry of Justice in August and November 1999.
The team's task - which has since been replaced by the independent office of Inspector of Custodial Services - was to examine the conditions of custody for prisoners, compliance with legislation and reasonable expectations of service and the effects of imprisonment on particular groups of prisoners.
"In its initial report, the team made 93 recommendations relating to the safety of prisoners, the cleanliness of the prison, ineffective allocation of staff duties, lack of constructive activities for prisoners and overall prison management," Mr Foss said.
"The Ministry responded immediately to the report by setting up a taskforce at Wooroloo to work through the recommendations.
"By the time of the second inspection in November, the team found that improvements were already taking effect."
Mr Foss said that progress had now been made with two thirds of the recommendations, including 27 where action had been completed.
"The Ministry acknowledges that improvements needed to take place, and it has taken steps to ensure that the improvements are maintained in the future," he said.
Mr Foss said a significant proportion of the recommendations related to policies and procedures under review within the overall prison system, and therefore changes at Wooroloo were being implemented in the context of those changes.
"The inspection reports are tabled in Parliament in accordance with the Government's policy of full openness and accountability of the prison system," he said.
"I believe these reports show that independent inspection is a very useful adjunct to proper management. It should not only be contractors who are subject to regular scrutiny of their performance, but also Government employees."
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