State Budget 2011-12: Supporting our Community - Corrective services infrastructure improvements, Redman
Author: Terry Redman
Published on: 26-May-2011
The Liberal-National Government has allocated almost $40million for capital works to improve vital corrective services infrastructure.
Corrective Services Minister Terry Redman said this year’s Budget would strengthen existing infrastructure and ensure those areas most in need of upgrade were swiftly addressed.
The State Government will expand its ligature minimisation program, removing hanging points in cells for prisoners at risk of self-harm.
Bandyup Women’s Prison, Banksia Hill Detention Centre and Greenough Regional Prison will get $16.5million in upgrades to perimeter security, and $8.6million will be allocated in 2011-12 to general infrastructure improvements.
“Capital infrastructure is a fundamental part of the State Government’s strategy to keep communities safe by keeping high-risk offenders off our streets,” Mr Redman said.
“Prisoners can treat infrastructure harshly 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, causing a high need for minor works and maintenance.”
The Minister said the 2011-12 Budget included an investment in improving safety and security standards in cells as part of the replacement bunk program. Prison industries will undertake a significant proportion of the works and provide significant savings to Government.
The State Government has also flagged $6.25million in the next four years to upgrade the Department of Corrective Services’ Total Offender Management System (TOMS).
TOMS is an important system used to manage all aspects of an offender’s time in custody, from reducing the risk of self harm or harm to others to ensuring sentence integrity and tracking visitors.
“The Department of Corrective Services supervises up to 10,000 people on any given day, including about 4,800 in prisons and youth detention centres and 5,200 people completing orders in the community,” Mr Redman said.
“As such, it relies heavily on information systems to operate in an efficient and effective manner.”
The capital works funding will be spent on:
· $16.5million for urgent upgrades to perimeter security
· $4.7million toward ligature minimisation
· $8.6million general infrastructure improvements
· $3.1million for bunk bed improvements
· $6.25million over four years for upgrades to offender management systems.
“This Liberal-National Government is addressing years of gross underinvestment in corrective services infrastructure by the previous Labor government,” the Minister said.
“We already have a $655million infrastructure program in place that will add 640 beds to Hakea, Casuarina and Albany prisons this financial year.
“In 2011-12, West Kimberley Regional Prison and the Young Adults Facility will be completed and we’re getting on with the job of constructing Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison, the Acacia Prison expansion and many work camps.
“Labor ignored our prisons during its eight years of government - a time of unprecedented economic growth when they were flush with funds - and now we are getting on with cleaning up the neglect and building the essential accommodation facilities for prisoners.
“We will continue to take high-risk offenders off our streets and invest in more prison infrastructure and rehabilitation programs to help break the crime cycle.”
