Canberra's prison remains close to capacity but detainee releases during the Christmas period has reduced pressure on the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
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The jail's operations manager Don Taylor said as of Wednesday, there were 326 people held through sentencing or remand in the ACT, including 16 women.
In 2013, authorities were forced to temporarily expand the prison's capacity from 332 to 366 beds, using domestic-style bunks placed in existing cottages and cells.
Despite being Canberra's only prison, the Maconochie Centre has no further scope for temporary expansion and the ACT government has said permanent capacity upgrades are years away.
In October the prison held a record 340 inmates, effectively representing full-capacity because of the restrictions on housing different prisoner types together.
About 15 per cent of beds are required to be kept unoccupied to allow flexibility for detainee management.
Mr Taylor said releases in December and January had alleviated some pressure on the prison's operations and stopped "an upward trend in capacity".
"On an operation basis ... we have to accept all detainees that are either sentenced or remanded by the courts," he said.
"In any prison environment, there’s generally capacity to increase bed numbers through double bunking. It’s not something that is just done here, it is done in all jurisdictions."
He said staff continued to effectively manage the prison population and needs of detainees including heath and education.
So-called separation percentages, which require some detainees to be kept separate from other members of the prison population due to factors including convictions and personal history, are a key consideration.
"When you do get higher in numbers, it creates more difficulty and having those areas available for people that might need to be separated and moved to other areas," Mr Taylor said.
"Once we start filling up, it just gets more and more difficult operationally to manage those aspects of the business."
"It is very difficult to understand and to really predict exact spikes in numbers so in response to climbing numbers earlier this year we had a look... and double bunking is both the quickest and most effective way of increasing capacity in an already established prison."
Last month, ACT Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury said crowding was partly to blame for an increase in banned items being smuggled into the prison.
The surge in inmates last year saw a rise in contraband such as electronics, drugs and mobile phones.
Approximately half of detainees live in domestic style cottages with up to five bedrooms, as well as more traditional cell-blocks.
Mr Taylor said Corrections ACT staff continued to work with Mr Rattenbury's office on potential works to permanently upgrade capacity.
"When you only have one prison and you have people in a small community that do know each other... it is very difficult to manage those separations. In other jurisdictions there are a lot more prisons and they also have prisons which are not campus style."
Last year, The Canberra Times reported the ACT government had dismissed a 2001 report urging it to build a vastly larger prison and had instead cut costs to build a 300-bed at a cost of $128 million.
The report by Rengain Consulting found the prison was likely to face capacity pressures within 20 months.