2017-09-08
Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — My question today is for the Minister for Corrections. In the July parliamentary break my colleague Ms Springle and I visited Tarrengower and Loddon prisons, and I would like to thank the corrections commissioner and the staff of those prisons for facilitating those visits and indeed some of the prisoners we were able to speak to. While we were very impressed by some of the good work going on in those prisons, we were concerned about the double bunks that are still being used at Loddon prison. My question is: how many double bunks are in place across the male prison system, particularly at Loddon Prison and at the Melbourne Remand Centre?
Ms TIERNEY (Minister for Corrections) — I thank the member for her question. The issue of the capacity in the prison system is not new to this chamber; it has been raised on numerous occasions. Indeed the reduction in double bunking has occurred under this government. There has been a significant reduction compared to when those opposite were in power before 2014.
The fact of the matter is, in terms of with dealing with the growth and the capacity issues, we do have a system within Corrections Victoria where every prisoner is assessed and then allocated to the most appropriate prison. Indeed we do have the opportunity to decant various prisoners from their respective prisons to the new facility, Ravenhall, in the foreseeable future. That will be done before the end of the year. Obviously there will be new plans afoot to relocate and house prisoners as a result of that new facility coming on board. In terms of the specifics that you ask about, I do not have those details on me.
Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — Thank you for your answer, Minister, and hopefully you can follow up perhaps with those details. In 2012 the Auditor-General raised this issue, and as you say, this issue is not a new issue. The Auditor-General found that up to 34 per cent of the total prison population at that stage were housed in accommodation that did not comply with Corrections Victoria standards, which recommend single-cell accommodation. The particular cells that Ms Springle and I saw at Loddon Prison were not only very small, and too small for two people to be in, but also certainly in need of a lot of repairs. Cells like that have a lack of privacy and personal space. I wonder how far along the road of reducing double bunking the government has gone and whether there is a time line for eliminating it.
Ms TIERNEY (Minister for Corrections) — I thank the member for her question. Obviously it is a preference not to have double bunking. We do have an unfortunate situation at the moment where we have massive growth in the prison population and it has required this to occur. Again, as I said in my answer to the substantive question, there has been a reduction in double bunking because, as we know, it was a major contributor to the riot at the Metropolitan Remand Centre. We are well aware of the accommodation pressures within the system, and there is a lot of work that is being done within the department and in coordination with a number of agencies to do forecast planning in terms of what we can do about the housing of prisoners in this state.