OICS 2023-24 Annual Report published

This year has been another busy one for our small team at the ACT Office of the Inspector of Correctional Services.

We have tabled statutory reviews of both adult and youth detention with recommendations that were either agreed or agreed to in principle by ACT Government. These reviews were a thematic review of isolation of young people at Bimberi Youth Justice Centre, and a critical incident review of an alleged sexual assault at the Alexander Maconochie Centre.

We have also focused on how we work, benefiting from being part of the Australian National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) under the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT). The Australian NPM is an emerging community of practice in relation to detention monitoring. We also focused on human rights-based standards for places of adult and youth detention including finalising our draft Standards for Youth Detention Places and developing specific expectations for isolation of children and young people in detention. Importantly, we also developed our 2023–28 Strategic Plan to guide our work in the years ahead.

A five-year mandated review of the operation of the Inspector of Correctional Services Act 2017 was conducted during the year by the Justice and Community Safety Directorate (JACS). Overall, the review found that the legislation was generally functioning well and made several recommendations to improve the efficiency and operation of functions, some of which will be progressed through minor amendments in the period to come.

In January 2024 we commenced our mandated three-yearly whole of centre review of Bimberi known as the Healthy Centre Review. The Healthy Centre Review covers all aspects of treatment and care in Bimberi and is due to be tabled by the end of the 2024 calendar year.

Read the full annual report here.