Parliamentary question without notice | C.S. Hare Centre
23/02/2016
The Hon. G.E. GAGO: My question is to the Minister for Correctional Services. Can the minister update the chamber on what new facilities have been opened to enable the Department for Correctional Services to better manage at-risk prisoners?
The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety): I thank the honourable member for her question, and I am very grateful for her interest in correctional services but more specifically the department’s commitment to rehabilitate those people who are in the state’s custody.
On 2 February, only a few weeks ago, I was delighted to have the privilege to officially open the C.S. Hare Centre and the health centre, which is a high-dependency unit at Yatala named Marnirni Trruku. The C.S. Hare Centre was named after a gentleman by the name of Charles Simeon Hare who was a politician. He was born in 1808. He represented Yatala in the House of Assembly and was first elected in 1857. Mr Hare had to wait over 100 years to have an institution named after him, but I am sure he would be very grateful nevertheless.
The naming of the centre, though, is entirely appropriate as Mr Hare was a great believer in prisoners being employed and moved in council that £5,000 be set aside to enable a prison to be constructed next to a quarry. C.S. Hare in turn later became a superintendent of Yatala prison, a post he held for almost two years. C.S. Hare’s story, and his belief that work served as a pathway back to the community, tails nicely into the name given to the health centre, which is Marnirni Trruku, as I mentioned. In the language of the traditional owners, Marnirni Trruku means ‘becoming better centre’.
The new facility will provide prisoners who are unwell with specialised care to the same standards as those in the community at large. Prisoners with a variety of needs and health issues from across the state will be able to become better whilst retaining their dignity and self-worth, critical elements within the rehabilitation journey.
The high-dependency unit was completed in January this year and comprises a 26-bed complex-needs unit. This includes a six-bed acute area for the assessment, treatment and observation of prisoners who are considered to be of high risk. It also includes a 12-bed therapeutic area for assessment, intervention, support, therapeutic programs and transition planning for prisoners with complex needs. An eight-bed aged-care/infirm facility is also included for assessment, specialty care and rehabilitation of older and infirm prisoners.
The health centre, also completed in January this year, comprises 12 beds for the monitoring of unwell prisoners. It has also generated approximately 20 new full-time positions within correctional operations. These facilities provide a much needed improvement to South Australia’s health care for prisoners and are a big step forward for the welfare of critical-need prisoners within the state.
I, like all Labor governments, am a firm believer in universal health care and that health is an equaliser. I am pleased that those in prison will have the same rights to basic health care as everybody else. I would like to thank all the staff involved in the planning, development and construction of the health centre and high-dependency unit. It was an honour to be able to officially open the centre and to see those who played an integral role in its facilitation and who are so proud of a facility that is so critical in ensuring that prisoners become better and that we better facilitate their rehabilitation as they enter back into the community.
This government and I are incredibly proud of our ‘tough on crime’ record, but it is also true that this government has a responsibility, once people enter into our correctional facilities, to do everything that we can to rehabilitate them in a way that when they re-enter the community they make a positive contribution rather than a negative one. This facility will go a long way in achieving that objective.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: I have a supplementary question. Are these new facilities disability accessible? Also, will the provision of these facilities and new standards prevent a future case like the one we saw of prisoner Jacqui, who was reportedly handcuffed for 22 hours of the day for most of the eight months she spent at Yatala in 2011?
The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety): I thank the honourable member for her important supplementary question. These facilities undoubtedly better equip the Department for Correctional Services to be able to handle high-needs prisoners. You refer to a specific incident that occurred some time ago. This facility, as I am advised, really gives the Department for Correctional Services a facility that is able to accommodate and deal with those prisoners who find themselves in a high acute needs area.
Having spoken to the staff who will be using this facility, they are extremely excited about the capability that this new facility offers to be able to deal with those people who have really high needs and find themselves in vulnerable situations and other circumstances. Undoubtedly, this facility goes a long way to be able to deal with circumstances like the one that you referred to.
With respect to the first part of your question, I am more than happy to take that on notice and look at whether or not it complies with a whole range of disabilities standards, but more specifically I can assure you that this facility undoubtedly goes a long way to being better equipped to handle a whole range of different circumstances, including those people who suffer disabilities who fall within the state’s care.
