Ceiling and melted skylight in the foyer. Photo: ACT Correctional Services.
THE review into a serious fire at the Alexander Maconochie Centre on November 14 discovered a major security issue after it found that detainees breached a locked door during the incident.
Conducted by the Office of the ACT Inspector of Correctional Services, the review, presented in the ACT Legislative Assembly today (April 20), revealed that the fire in Sentenced Cottage 2, a two-storey low security unit, accommodating both sentenced and remand detainees, was very serious and caused significant damage to the cottage, with an estimated repair cost of about $40,000.
The ACT Inspector of Correctional Services, Neil McAllister said: “It has also raised a major security issue of detainees being able to breach a locked door [after night lock in], which has since been addressed by ACT Corrective Services.”
“Our family’s experience of the interaction between the mental health and the justice systems for our family member was as traumatic as the incident that led to them being held in custody,” says our lead letter this week.
WE write to echo concerns of racism in the Alexander Maconochie Centre prison expressed in Jon Stanhope’s column “The shameful politicians who don’t give a stuff” (CN March 4).
As Canberrans, we struggle to get a voice to be heard, but how do we alarm those who put this in the “way-too-hard basket”?
The case Mr Stanhope outlined was not an isolated incident of strip searching a female detainee in view of male detainees.