CORRECTIVE SERVICES —
PRISONS
865. Ms J. FARRER to the Minister for Corrective Services:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's commitment to keeping Western Australia
safe and strong by addressing the pressures placed on our prison system
due to the eight and a half years of mismanagement by the previous Liberal–National
government. Can the minister outline to the house how this government's
efforts have not only improved community safety, but also supported local Western
Australian businesses and created more local jobs as the economy recovers from
the impacts of COVID-19?
Mr F.M.
LOGAN replied:
I thank the member for Kimberley for
the question, and I congratulate her for spending her time in this house
fighting for the people of the Kimberley in trying to address some of the
injustices that have occurred in that part of our state.
I have said this in the house a few
times before: after three years and nine months as the Minister for Corrective
Services, what I inherited from the previous government in the area of
corrections was a dysfunctional department and
a dysfunctional prison estate that had no plan, no money, no spare beds, and
security that was left to deteriorate. Having given a commitment to this house
to fix those things, over the last three years and nine months I have gone
ahead and fixed them on behalf of the people of WA and on behalf of the
prisoners to keep our state safe and strong.
In the area that the member for
Kimberley comes from, members will remember that in this house I referred to
the absolutely disgraceful state in which Broome Regional Prison was left after
the time of the previous government. It did not know whether to keep it open or
close it. It kept moving from one position to another, spending no money on Broome Regional Prison. If members look at the
coroner's inquiry into Mr Jackamarra's death in Broome prison,
it points directly to the fact that the
hanging points were not taken out of the prison because the government did not
know whether or not to keep it open. It was a disgrace that Mr Jackamarra ended
up losing his life because of a failure to remove those hanging points from the
ablutions in Broome prison. We fixed it. As soon as I became the Minister for
Corrective Services, I immediately moved on Broome prison and allocated $2.7 million
to upgrade the security facilities and reception area, remove the hanging
points and fix up the women's cells. Those works created 160 jobs and
39 apprenticeships, all of which was local content because the work was done by
companies in Broome.
We are now moving on to replace
Broome prison because, at the end of the day, it is more than 100 years old and
it needs to be replaced. We are in the process of planning a new Broome
Regional Prison. In fact, the member for Kimberley joined me recently in a meeting
with traditional owners to identify the right location for a new Broome prison.
We have allocated $1.4 million in this year's budget to do the planning
and design work and to start doing the contractual work for the replacement of
Broome prison. I hope we can make some announcements in the near future about
the location and design of the new Broome Regional Prison.
Those are two examples of massive changes that have occurred
within the Department of Corrective Services in Western Australia; so much so
that for the first time in more than a decade, the prison estate is at only 82
per cent capacity. When I took responsibility for this portfolio, there were more
prisoners than beds. We now have more than 8 500 beds in the Western Australian
prison estate, and we are running at 82 per cent capacity. That means that we
can cope with any surge that may happen as a result of the great work that has
been done by the Minister for Police in having more police on the beat. For any
surge that may result in extra people either on remand or sentenced to prison,
we have the beds to put them in. That was not the case in March 2017. The
people who work in corrections are in a much better space. Their heads are in a
much better space and they enjoy going to work. As I said, that means that we
have created a stronger and safer state.