Inmates used a poster to hide a hole they had smashed through plasterboard in a cell at the temporary full-time jail in Symonston earlier this year.
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Shadow Corrections Minister Andrew Wall described the incident as a "major security breach" in ACT parliament this week, saying he had reports damage was done to a perimeter wall in February.
The government described an incident of a lesser nature, which it said did not constitute an escape.
Justice Minister Shane Rattenbury confirmed detainees had damaged the wall of a cell in the early hours of a morning in February.
He said inmates had made a hole in the plasterboard of an interior wall in their cell and used a poster or picture to cover the damage, but no damage was done to the cell's brick wall.
"On the other side of that plasterboard, the internal wall was a solid brick wall, so it was not considered an escape - this does not even qualify under the report on government services definition of an 'escape' given they had not even got to the brick wall at that point in time," he said.
Mr Wall said the detainees appeared to have come "very close to breaking out in this instance".
"There's been a long list of security issues in ACT Corrections under this government, which is why I've repeatedly called for a wide-ranging security review," he said.
"I'll work to make sure we strengthen security."
The Symonston facility was used to house full-time detainees for a temporary period.
It was designed as an overflow facility to help the Alexander Maconochie Centre cope with overcrowding pressures, until capacity upgrades at the prison were completed earlier this year.
Symonston has also been used to house inmates on weekend detention, but that was currently being phased out.
The Symonston facility will be phased out as a correctional facility once weekend detention ends.
Mr Rattenbury told the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday the government had not yet made a decision what it would do with the building.
At least one fire has also been lit at the Alexander Maconochie Centre in the past 24 months, although Mr Rattenbury said it had not caused any significant damage.
Asked how a fire was allowed to begin in a jail, Mr Rattenbury said:
"It is the case that some of our detainees are quite ingenious, and they do find ways to set fire to things, through the stripping of electrical cables and other sorts of matters," he said.
