A security review of Canberra's jail instigated after two prisoners escaped last year has found a combination of human error and systems issues were to blame.
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The report will not be released publicly but six recommendations to address "systems issues" have now been revealed.
The internal review was commissioned by ACT justice minister Shane Rattenbury following the escape of two detainees from the Alexander Maconochie Centre in September last year. The men took less than 10 minutes to scale three fences, with the help of a ladder-like cable tray. It took about six hours for prison staff to notice they were missing.
"Due to the sensitive nature of operations at the AMC, a secure custodial facility, the Morison report cannot be publicly released," a Justice and Community Safety directorate spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman said the review considered a number of factors including the circumstances of the escape and more broadly what changes were necessary to improve overall operational security of the AMC as it related to the secure custody of detainees.
The review recommended stronger training and staff development as well as biannual whole-of-centre reviews to examine the AMC's performance against the Healthy Prisons test.
The review also recommends improved security management systems and improved management of detainee movements, the acceleration of the ACT Corrective Services review into policies and procedures currently underway to deliver improved oversight, better compliance monitoring of procedures and increased diversity of those in leadership roles in the centre.
"The review found that the perimeter, movement control, architecture, technology and other controls provide generally robust built-in physical security for AMC," the spokeswoman said.
The government committed to action on all of the recommendations, stating "work on many of these is already underway or in the planning stage".
"The security of the AMC, as well as the safety and care of detainees, remains our absolute priority. This was the first breach of its kind, and ACT Corrective Services has responded quickly to ensure we are doing all we can to prevent similar incidents in the future," the spokeswoman said.
Two detainees, Jacob MacDonald, 22, and Patrick McCurley, 29, were being held on remand when they escaped from the Alexander Maconochie Centre on September 2, 2016. It was the first successful prison break from the Hume facility since it began taking prisoners in March 2009.
CCTV footage revealed the men exited the facility through a window, and used a cable tray to scale three fences in four minutes at about 11pm at night, before they fled on foot. Police were called when they were discovered missing about six hours later. The escape sparked an extensive cross-border search.
McCurley was picked up two days later when police stopped the car he was driving on Majura Road. In November, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the escape.
MacDonald was on the loose for eight days before police arrested him at a home in Narrabundah. It later emerged in court that MacDonald got his girlfriend pregnant while on the run. In March, he was sentenced to at least nine months in prison for the escape.
