Study into Canberra's jail to be released after Liberals' motion

Opposition corrections spokeswoman Giulia Jones called for the study results to be released on Wednesday during debate on her motion in the Legislative Assembly.

Mrs Jones said the population of prisoners in the territory's adult prison, the Alexander Maconochie Centre, had reached a record 507 inmates last year, just four shy of the 511-bed capacity of the prison.

The prison was opened in 2008 with a capacity of 439 beds, but was expanded in 2016, and has since continued to come under increasing pressure from rising detainee numbers.

She said the Opposition had not yet developed a position on how to deal with the growing prisoner population - a national trend - but she wanted the public to know what the findings and recommendations of the year-old study were.

Mrs Jones said it was time for the government to also explain its plans to house prisoners, given some detainees had been 'double-bunked' [two inmates to a one-person cell] during the past year.

While Mr Rattenbury said he supported the overall motion, and agreed to release the study later this week, he would not explain why it had taken a year since it was completed to release, saying only that it was being finalised.

Funding for the study was allocated in the 2017-18 budget, and in January last year, Mr Rattenbury said he had recently received the report from the study.

He also would not explain any details about the injection this week of more than $10 million into a host of new corrections-related initiatives including a new bail accommodation option, nor several justice reinvestment-related measures.

Those initiatives were included in the government's annual budget review released on Tuesday, but Mr Rattenbury would not comment on them, pending a government announcement later this week.

Mr Rattenbury successfully amended Mrs Jones' original motion, with some minor changes to the timeframe for releasing the feasibility study, and the Assembly passed the motion on the voices.