Question Time

Correctional Services Officers

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:21): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Correctional Services about correctional services officers.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: It was reported in The Advertiser this morning that prison officers found cannabis at the Cadell Training Centre, which prompted a search of the centre in which officers found a love letter relating to a relationship between a female officer and a prisoner. My question to the minister is: has the prison officer been suspended? If so, with or without pay? What charges will be laid, if any, against this particular officer?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:21): I thank the honourable member for his question. I can confirm that on 9 August, the Department for Correctional Services was contacted by Channel 7 and Channel 10 in relation to information they had received about an alleged significant incident at the Cadell Training Centre involving staff and contraband.

It appears that the media has been provided with information relating to the following three incidents. On 1 June this year, during a routine search at the Cadell Training Centre, a quantity of contraband was found. As per the standard operating procedure, the contraband was taken to the officer in charge, where it was sealed in evidence bags and placed in the evidence cell. That evidence was in turn referred to SAPOL for testing and results are yet to be received.

As a result of the above contraband find, SAPOL, in conjunction with DCS, conducted a joint operation, which included DCS Operations Security Unit and also intensive SAPOL resources. The operation involved an extensive search of the Cadell Training Centre in June, resulting in a number of contraband finds.

On 3 July, during a routine patrol at Cadell Training Centre, a prisoner was found with contraband (namely marijuana) in a cell and that matter has been referred to the appropriate investigative agencies. Conclusions appear to have been drawn by some media outlets that the above three incidents were linked. There is no evidence to support such linkages or to support any links to the misconduct of staff, other than the incident outlined previously, the most recent one I referred to being on 3 July.

What is important here is to acknowledge a few basic facts, which I am sure all members of the chamber can appreciate. The first one is that prisons, by their very nature, are dangerous places and we know that there is no prison anywhere in the world that is contraband-free. All prisons globally seem to experience issues around contraband and our challenge as a state, as a jurisdiction, is to try to make sure we are doing everything we can to reduce the presence of contraband within the prison system, particularly around weapons, of course, which present an immediate threat to the safety of staff, and also inmates, but also drugs or illicit substances, which can undermine our objective to rehabilitate prisoners and, in turn, reduce reoffending.

Having acknowledged that, incidents do occur from time to time. What is important is that we provide relevant agencies—in this case DCS but also SAPOL—the resources to be able to ensure that they can conduct investigations and inquiries so that, where contraband is found, people are brought to justice as a result of that, whether that be inmates or indeed visitors or even, in the worst case scenario, if there has been some misconduct on behalf of staff.

I am satisfied that the appropriate investigative authorities have the resources they need to be able to conduct investigations. It would be my expectation that, where those investigations ensue, we get the best outcome we possibly can when it comes to people being held to account if they have broken the law.