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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-05-14 Daily Xml
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PRISONER COMPLAINT, OMBUDSMAN'S REPORT

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN (Napier—Minister for Finance, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:15): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: Today the Ombudsman released his report detailing his investigation into a complaint raised by a female prisoner with complex needs about her management in the prison system. The prisoner had complained that she had been restrained for long periods of time. This matter received a great deal of public attention in the past and I want to address a few important key points.

From the outset, I acknowledge the balanced tenor of the Ombudsman's report and findings. This is a complex case. The female prisoner is a 40 year old who has presented with extremely complex needs as well as ongoing behavioural problems. Her sentence was increased after being convicted of assaults against correctional officers. She has applied for release to parole, but the Parole Board to date has refused her release. I am advised that this prisoner has been diagnosed with severe borderline personality disorder and has displayed constant and extreme self-harming behaviours.

This prisoner has made numerous self-harm attempts. Many of these have been deliberate attempts to re-open an existing self-harm wound on her neck. Due to her self-harming, she has been under stringent observation and her management is strict in order to prevent her from impulsively harming herself or others. The Department for Correctional Services has continually sought and received advice from the Department of Health, as well as expert advice from interstate specialists, to address the highly complex needs of this prisoner.

In summary, the department has a duty to manage this female as a prisoner in a custodial setting and there are limitations on the department's ability to provide a therapeutic environment for the most complex cases in this environment. Measures are being taken to address these limitations, but the accommodation and management of the prisoner in a custodial setting has undoubtedly presented significant challenges due to the complex needs with which she has presented and continues to present.

When it comes to making decisions about complex needs prisoners obtaining inpatient services in a health or forensic mental health facility, the advice of health professionals is relied upon. In this person's case, the consistent medical advice was that she did not fit the criteria for admittance into a mental health facility such as James Nash House.

Whilst the focus remained on actively gaining her admittance into a mental health facility, the strategy for accommodating her was centred around keeping her safe and alive. Indeed, significant money has been invested into keeping this individual safe and alive: close to half a million dollars in staffing costs alone, around $75,000 in modification to accommodation at Adelaide Women's Prison and a further $450,000 for specialised accommodation at Port Augusta Prison.

While these works were being undertaken, her regime required restricting her access to objects and environments of which she may have taken advantage to self-harm. These included a strict restraint regime. While it is acknowledged that the female prisoner was restrained for significant periods of time during her time at Yatala Labour Prison, at all times the restraint regime was implemented with the primary aim of keeping her safe and alive.

Several actions have been taken as an acknowledgement that we all need to do more to manage people like this in the prison system. For example, the department undertook extensive modifications to two prison sites as a matter of priority, including a wing in the Adelaide Women's Prison to facilitate this prisoner's needs.

Infrastructure works included the removal of all ligature points from the relevant association areas and ensuring her cell was also antiligature to keep her safe. It also included the laying of soft floor surfacing across a recreation yard and replacing standard departmental steel furniture with antiligature plastic furniture. In addition, the government has funded other important actions in response, including the construction of 20 beds divided into two 10-bed high security units at the Adelaide Women's Prison that will greatly assist in the management of high-risk, high-need females with complex behavioural and mental health needs. The construction is due to be completed at the end of the year 2013.

The government has also funded a high dependency unit to be constructed at Yatala Labour Prison. The unit will provide special accommodation and support services to prisoners with high level care needs due to mental health or age-related conditions. It is a credit to departmental staff that this prisoner has been kept safe and alive, and I thank the Ombudsman for recognising this important fact in his report.

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Yes.

Ms CHAPMAN: I rise to seek some clarification. Today we have had the Ombudsman's report tabled in the parliament, and as you would be aware, we are the body to whom the Ombudsman is responsible to report, and you have obviously ensured its distribution. The minister has just made a ministerial statement, not on the tragic circumstances specifically of the events and what initiatives his government may have been applying for the purposes of ensuring they do not occur, as well. What he has done is issue a ministerial statement directly in respect of the information in the Ombudsman's report, repeatedly, as you have just listened to.

I would seek some advice from you regarding the report itself—not the information to the department, because as you know the Ombudsman is entitled to inquire into the department's action and conduct. The minister here, before the ink is dry on our copies, is presenting a ministerial statement to the parliament on matters in the report. I know he is very good and very competent in a lot of things, but to have actually read the report, digested it, prepared and made a ministerial statement within seconds of it being tabled in the parliament even I would find unbelievable. So, I would just ask that you look into this question of the—

The SPEAKER: What is your—

Ms CHAPMAN: —tabling of the report—

The SPEAKER: Your imputation is that the minister had illegitimate access to the report?

Ms CHAPMAN: —and whether there has been any provision of the report to the minister—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Do it by substantive motion then.

Ms CHAPMAN: Because you are in charge of the parliament, sir, and that is why I am bringing it to your attention as to whether there has been any publication of the report to the minister prior to it being tabled in the parliament.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Point of order, sir. This is turning into a rambling speech rather than a point of order. If the member for Bragg, the deputy leader, wants to raise allegations, then she should do so by way of substantive motion rather than the nonsense she is carrying on with.

The SPEAKER: I have listened to the deputy leader's point of order and perhaps the Minister for Correctional Services will approach me during question time and explain the circumstances.

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