2021-2022 Annual Report
13 October 2022
In 2021–22 the Office of the Inspector of Correctional Services (OICS) commenced work on the second Healthy Prison Review (HPR) of the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC). This review will include an update of the status of implementation of recommendations accepted by the ACT Government in the 2019 review. We have also again conducted a survey of detainees and staff which will be interesting to compare results three years on.
OICS also conducted two complex and lengthy Critical Incident Reviews. The first involved an
escape of a detainee from an AMC secure escort on 9 July 2021 and the second, tragically,
the death in custody by hanging of a young detainee at AMC on 1 February 2022.
In the previous reporting period (June 2020) my office tabled the inaugural “Healthy Centre Review”
of Bimberi Youth Justice Centre (Bimberi). The government response was tabled in November
2021 and the government agreed or agreed in principle to 26 of the 27 recommendations.
The reporting year also saw OICS designated by the ACT Government as a National Preventive
Mechanism (NPM) under the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT)
for ACT adult and youth detention facilities. The OPCAT is a human rights treaty that Australia
ratified that requires independent “preventive” monitoring of detention places, as opposed to
responding to complaints. This is a welcome development by OICS.
Documents