Female prisoners at Canberra's jail are subjected to "catcalls and worse" when they are forced to "parade" past male detainees, and they're still being housed in a wing built for the worst male offenders.
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The revelations come from the ACT's independent corrections inspector Neil McAllister.
He recently fronted an inquiry by the standing committee on justice and community safety, and said problems with women's accommodation at the Alexander Maconochie Centre should be resolved "sooner rather than later".
A report on the inquiry was tabled in the ACT Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
The inspector said female prisoners at the jail were still being housed in a wing designed for high-security male prisoners. He said the wing had "really no green space around it at all" and was "not particularly female friendly".
The female prisoners were moved to the wing in late 2017. They were previously housed in spacious "cottage-style" jail accommodation with lots of greenery and lawns, which was out of view of male prisoners.
Mr McAllister said the move was down to increased numbers at the prison, but the female prisoners should be moved back to the cottage-style accommodation as soon as possible.
ACT Minister for Corrections Mick Gentleman told the committee the issue of women's accommodation at the prison was a "live" one, and he and the Justice and Community Safety Directorate were working to resolve it.
"It is a work in progress, if you like," Mr Gentleman said.
"We are looking at options for the future and at what we can do to provide safe accommodation for women detainees."
The committee recommended the ACT government "urgently" improve women's accommodation at Canberra's jail.
The inspector said the female prisoners' living situation also had bearing on the fact they had to "parade past some of the male units when they are going to, for example, programs, the health centre and visits".
"They are subject to catcalls and worse, so it is not a good situation and we would certainly prefer that was resolved sooner rather than later," Mr McAllister said.
"I do not think we are alone in that observation."
The committee noted remandees at the Alexander Maconochie Centre were still not being separated from convicted prisoners, contrary to legislation and human rights law.
The corrections minister said that, too, was something the government was looking at, but the committee said it was concerned the situation wasn't being addressed with more urgency.
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Director General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate Richard Glenn said: "[There] was a different assumption about the mix of detainees that would be in the facility.
"The working presumption was that there would be far more low-security detainees.
"That is not what has happened in reality."
The committee said the situation should be rectified as soon as possible but, if it couldn't be, the committee reluctantly recommended legislation should be amended to reflect the fact prisoners and remandees couldn't always be accommodated separately.
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