Prisoner Support and Treatment

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (15:02): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Correctional Services questions regarding the use of medication in the prison population.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: A fortnight ago, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released a report entitled 'Medication use by Australia's prisoners 2015'. This report notes that about half of all prisoners are taking medication of some sort, 'with many prisoners having complex health conditions, at times complicated by histories of trauma combined with underlying chronic and mental health conditions'. The report records that prisoners are nine times as likely as the general community to take antipsychotics, four times as likely to take medications used to treat addictive disorders, and more than twice as likely to take antidepressants or mood stabilisers of some sort.

The report also shows that prisoners begin taking medications for chronic illnesses at earlier ages, when compared with the general population. My questions to the minister are:

1. Is the minister aware of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's June 2016 report 'Medication use by Australia's prisoners 2015', and has he read the report?

2. If the minister has read it, does he agree that it demonstrates the critical need for adequate support programs and positive mental health support services in our prison system, given people with mental health conditions and substance abuse issues are overrepresented compared to the general population?

3. What general health and education programs and services are available in SA prisons to ensure prisoners have the opportunity to prevent chronic health conditions?

4. Is the minister concerned that people with mental illness and substance abuse issues are overrepresented in our corrections system and what does he intend to do to address this imbalance?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:04): Thank you very much to the honourable member for her important questions. I will try to deal with each of the honourable member's questions. The first question was am I aware of the report? The answer to that question is yes. The second question was have I read that report? No, I have not read that report line by line, so unfortunately I cannot speak to some of the specific things that the honourable member referred to.

Generally speaking, the tenet of the question refers to the challenges that face us in the correctional system considering there is an overrepresentation of people within Corrections who suffer from mental health problems, and this is something I think is well known in the community and presents an ongoing challenge for the department generally and us as a government.

Mental health is becoming an issue that we are becoming more aware of as a community. The challenge before Corrections is substantial, and as a government and department we are constantly trying to review its efforts to ensure that, where it is in appropriate to do so, we are making sure that there are programs in place specifically to deal with the needs of those people who suffer mental health problems.

I think it is already commonly known that sometimes prison is not the best place to accommodate individual people's needs. Prison is not always the best place to educate someone for instance, it is not always the best place to administer health care, nevertheless individuals find themselves in prison for a reason, so we have to be able to deal with the situation as best as we possibly can under difficult circumstances.

The government has been making investments along these lines. Earlier this year, I opened a new health facility at Yatala prison that is equipped and designed in many respects to be able to deal with mental health issues. This is something that we want to continue to observe to see how this facility operates. We will continue to monitor how these facilities operate but the demand is growing, and I think the honourable member would be aware of that. I am happy to take the other points in her question on notice in regard to the specifics of the report, but the honourable member can rest assured that mental health within Corrections is something that we are very cognisant of as a challenge that needs to be taken on. It is being dealt with in the full knowledge that it is an incredibly difficult issue in a complex environment.