The ACT's jail was close to capacity on the night of its first prisoner suicide, government figures show.
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Fairfax Media can also reveal the territory will be without its desperately needed secure mental health facility - designed mainly to hold mentally ill offenders - until at least 2017, after its completion date was pushed back by more than a year.
A 30-year-old inmate committed suicide in his cell in the prison's health centre on Tuesday night, just one month after authorities were warned he was a prisoner at risk of self-harm.
The government says guards checked his cell less than an hour before his body was found just before 7pm.
It is still unclear why he was locked in the prison's health centre, which is understood to be unsuited for those at high risk of self-harm and suicide, rather than the specifically designed crisis support unit.
But the government has provided figures that show the prison was almost at capacity on the night of his death.
A spokeswoman for Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury said 309 inmates were counted in the 332-bed jail on the night, noting that not all of the 332 beds can be used because of restrictions on what part of the jail each prisoner can be placed.
It is not known whether overcrowding contributed to the decision not to house the prisoner in the crisis support unit, where those at the highest risk of suicide are held.
The ACT government and Mr Rattenbury are restricted on commenting on the suicide in detail for legal reasons, and are unable to confirm whether the prisoner was still marked as a prisoner at risk on the night he died.
Aggravating the situation is the disclosure that completion of the much-needed medium-security forensic mental health facility has been pushed back by more than a year to 2017.
It is understood that Health Minister Katy Gallagher is unhappy and will demand that the ACT's health and planning officials bring the construction time forward.
Under the government's original plans, a 15-bed high-security facility for people found not guilty of crimes due to mental illness was to be built by March 2016.
That proposal was revised this year to a 25-bed medium-security facility, which Ms Gallagher said could still be completed in 2½ years.
But an ACT Health timeline for the project, seen by Fairfax Media, puts the completion date at May 2017.
Community consultation for the project would begin next June, with final sketches to be completed by February 2015.
Construction would not begin until September 2015.
For years, mental health
advocates and criminal lawyers have raised concerns that people who should be in a secure mental health unit are languishing in custody in the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
The project has already been drawn out by multiple increases to the estimated cost and questions over the need for such a facility in the territory.
ACT Public Advocate Anita Phillips said this week that recent incidents at Canberra’s adult mental health unit showed the “desperate need” for a forensic mental health facility.
In one case, a patient was sent to Canberra’s jail after being charged with property damage at the mental health unit.
The gap in the mental health system has also been exposed by the case of Kristy Louise McGuckin, who has repeatedly clashed with corrections officers during court appearances.
The mental health unit has refused to assess the woman, and magistrate Bernadette Boss has previously raised concerns about the jail being used as a de facto mental health facility for McGuckin.
Ms Phillips said Canberra was lagging behind regional cities such as Townsville in Queensland and Orange in NSW, which had built forensic units while the ACT government’s plans remained unfinished.
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