Healthy Prison Review of the Alexander Maconochie Centre, 2019

13 October 2021

This was the first Healthy Prison Review of the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) conducted by OICS. Overall, it found that the AMC has the ingredients to be a Healthy Prison but more needs to be done to address key issues across all four ‘pillars’ of the healthy prison framework. These pillars are safety; respect and dignity; purposeful activity; and rehabilitation and preparation for release.

The review makes 73 recommendations for improvement across these four pillars. Underlying many of these recommendations are issues of high detainee numbers, a large number of cohorts that do not mix, and the need to escort detainees to different areas of the AMC. This impacts on areas such as detainees’ ability to access health appointments, programs, education and outdoor exercise, and it reduces time out of cells.

An ongoing issue of concern to OICS is the accommodation of women in what was designed as a high security men’s unit. This review found that the situation had not been remedied since it was raised in the review of The care and management of remandees at the Alexander Maconochie Centre 2018 and the women still lack equal access to facilities, programs and services compared to the male detainees.

The review commends the commitment of ACT Corrective Services staff and acknowledges the improvements OICS has seen at the AMC over the last 18 months. The next Healthy Prison review of the AMC will be conducted in 2021.

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