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The report is available now
On 21 February 2024, the report Prison overcrowding and other matters report: An investigation in response to a reference by the Legal Affairs and Safety Committee of the Queensland Parliament, by the Office of the Queensland Ombudsman, was tabled by the Honourable Curtis Pitt MP, Speaker of the Queensland Parliament.
The Legal Affairs and Safety Committee (LASC) of the Queensland Parliament referred various matters to this Office about Queensland’s corrective services system. This report details the Office’s investigation of the matters that LASC raised. Among the issues referred that were within the Office’s jurisdiction, the most significant was the impact of prison overcrowding. The Office investigated the overcrowding of Queensland prisons generally and specifically at Maryborough Correctional Centre (MCC).
The report found that responses to overcrowding include increased staffing levels, increased number of prison cells, fitting cells with bunk beds, and workplace health and safety initiatives.
While these responses have addressed some of the impacts of overcrowding, the report outlines recommendations to further address the ongoing significant risks to officers and prisoners.
Strategies the Office recommended to QCS include:
- providing advice to government on options to expand the number of cells available
- continued focus on workplace health and safety responses for officers
- addressing staffing issues created by overcrowding
- managing the impact of overcrowding on prison services and infrastructure
- ensuring the availability of psychology services to prisoners in shared cells
- improving the configuration of existing shared cells to reduce impacts on prisoner wellbeing
- reducing the application of modified unit routines
- improved decision-making and risk assessment processes for shared cell arrangements
- ensuring transparency of information about prisoner numbers and overcrowding
- improved recognition in regional prisons of the special legal status of remand prisoners.
Specific recommendations for MCC include continuing to address staffing levels, improving infrastructure and access to services. The Office did not make any adverse findings or recommendations about the QCS rank structure and uniform dress standards, or funding of uniforms and personal protective equipment.
The report recommendations were accepted without reservation by the QCS Commissioner.
To read the report, kindly refer to the download section below.
Source: Office of the Queensland Ombudsman, Australia
