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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-10-16 Daily Xml
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PRISON SAFETY

Ms THOMPSON (Reynell) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Police and Minister for Correctional Services. Can the minister inform the house about collaboration between the Department for Correctional Services and the SAPOL Dog Operations Unit to improve safety in our prisons?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (15:03): I thank the member for Reynell for her question. South Australia Police and the Department for Correctional Services both operate specialist dog units for drug detection and other duties. Operation Dedicate 20 was conducted over two days at Yatala Labour Prison in September to prevent and detect offences being committed by visitors in and around the prison. SAPOL detection dogs searched 114 people and their vehicles outside the secure prison area resulting in 41 positive detections from drug dogs: seven ecstasy pills were discovered, 0.5 grams of heroin and four grams of methamphetamine were discovered, 38 people were refused entry to the prison and three people were served with visit bans of 12 months. Traffic infringement and vehicle defects were also issued.

This is another great example of SAPOL and the Department for Correctional Services working in partnership to make our prisons safer. The message from this operation is simple: bring drugs into our prisons and you may end up on the other side of the fence for much longer than you planned.

Labor has worked hard to make sure the right people are behind that fence, amending the Correctional Services Act to improve information sharing between the police and the Parole Board and ensuring violent or sexual offenders, even those with short sentences, satisfy the Parole Board before release.

Today, the Leader of the Opposition recycled her 2010 policy to make all offenders sentenced to more than 12 months to go before the Parole Board without any consultation with the Parole Board, without any additional resources for the Parole Board, with no prison expansion policy, and while refusing to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order: the minister is debating the answer to the question.

The SPEAKER: Yes; minister, I refer you back to the substance of the question.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the money for this initiative come from the 35,000 fewer public servants she has planned? Today, the Attorney-General tabled the annual report from the Commissioner of Police, summarising the work of SAPOL's drug detection dogs in 2011-12. The dogs were deployed in the CBD, regional centres, major public events and festivals, prison car parks, public transport hubs, and Schoolies. Over the course of the year, there were 293 detections leading to 224 arrests or reports, and 69 drug diversions.

I want to take this opportunity to wish a happy retirement to some of our dogs—Molly, Hooch and Jay, three valued members of SAPOL's drug protection dog team who have been on the job since our current legislation was enacted. I am assured that Tilly and Kalia, the senior members staying on in the team, will welcome the new recruits as they complete their training.

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