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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-16 Daily Xml
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PRISONS, OVERCROWDING

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON (14:48): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Correctional Services a question about prison overcrowding.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON: In answers to questions this week the minister has sought to stress that she makes no apology—I repeat: makes no apology—and is tough (following the media unit's advice) in respect of the fact that a large number of remandees are held in custody in South Australian prisons. She has said that she would rather see these people behind bars than on the streets.

On Monday this week Justice Bleby in the Supreme Court of South Australia heard an application for bail by a remandee being held in the cells at the Adelaide Watch House who had been held there for a number of days. The judge was informed of the inappropriate accommodation for holding persons for any length of time in those cells, which are designed for temporary holding only. Although the judge refused the application for bail, he said that if the situation continued there might be grounds for reconsidering the application for bail. In other words, there is a real possibility that the government's failure to provide appropriate accommodation for remandees will lead to certain persons charged with offences being released into the community. My questions are:

1. Is the minister aware of the judge's remarks, and what action does she propose to take in relation to them?

2. Is she aware that the government's failure to provide appropriate accommodation is placing the community at risk by forcing the release of persons who would ordinarily be refused bail?

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Gambling, Minister Assisting the Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for his question. Again, it was a question full of comment, views and conjecture, even presuming to put words into a judge's mouth. Did the honourable member say the City Watch House?

The Hon. R.D. Lawson interjecting:

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: Until we had the major incident at Port Augusta last week, the City Watch House was not in use for quite some time. The Hon. Stephen Wade wanted to visit the City Watch House and we had to tell him that we had nobody in there and had not for some time. If the honourable member is saying that he was there in the past few days, yes, we have had to use the City Watch House, and we have been quite open and transparent about that. We have had to use it on and off, but it had not been used for quite some time. In this time of emergency when we have had a loss of 92 beds, yes, we have used the City Watch House.

The advice I have received today is that we also have been able to vacate some of those beds in the City Watch House so, as time goes on, we will have beds coming online in Port Augusta. We hope that in two to three weeks we will have 20 beds there. My advice today is also that the PSA and the Department for Correctional Services have reached agreement in using two units—from memory, units 13 and 14 (or it could be units 12 and 13)—at the Adelaide Women's Prison that were used previously for low security women prisoners and are not in use at the moment. I understand that, as of today, we have 33 spare beds for women in this state, which is a good thing. Probably from tomorrow we will also have access to another 20 beds at the Northfield site.

We have had an emergency, and I thank all those who have helped the Department for Correctional Services, whether they be our correctional services officers, SAPOL or GSL. Certainly, the opposition, with all its nonsense and tosh, has been of no help. The opposition needs to say where it stands.

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