Prison Administration

In reply to the Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (13 April 2017).

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety): I am advised:

Prior to 2013, the Adelaide Remand Centre had instituted its own local operating procedure to ensure checking protocols were recorded. A standard operating procedure defining headcount and checking protocols was introduced by the Department for Correctional Services in November 2013.

This procedure outlines the requirements for supervision of prisoners to ensure accurate accountability of the entire prisoner population at all times. This procedure ensures that, during a period of lockdown, staff conduct a random visual observation of all prisoners at least once every two hours. These observations are conducted to verify that all prisoners are safe and showing no obvious signs of distress.

This procedure is consistent across the prison system however as each of our prison complexes are unique in facilities and structural layout, the functional conduct of such checks may vary to ensure individual prison operational concerns are addressed.

Institutional staff record all headcounts and random observations in departmental log books and include the time the check was conducted and the name of the responsible officers. These records may be monitored through the operational compliance framework at each prison location and the department's Internal Audit and Risk Management Branch.