The families and loved ones of prison inmates have spoken out against a planned reduction to visiting opportunities at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, arguing it will hinder rehabilitation, create unrest, and worsen feelings of depression and isolation.
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The ACT government is about to launch a major overhaul of the way visits at the AMC are conducted, a move they say is necessary to ensure fair access to all families after the dramatic surge in inmate numbers in recent years.
Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury said the changes are needed to give all inmates equal rights to visits.
The changes will mean visitors have two visit opportunities per week for each accommodation unit of the jail, with up to an hour each visit.
That is a significant reduction from the current availability of visits for five days per week.
The move has angered families and partners of inmates, who are calling on the government to find another way to deal with the pressures placed on visitation by increasing inmate numbers.
A petition protesting the changes is expected to be presented to AMC general manager Don Taylor later this week.
One detainee's wife, who asked not to be named, said the inmates were extremely distressed by the proposed changes.
She said her husband, and other inmates at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, desperately looked forward to visits from friends, partners, and family.
"It's not humane. Here they are saying this is a humane jail, but they're really not thinking of the families or the inmates," she said.
"If you take all these things away, it's not helping anybody."
She said she feared the changes would create unrest within the jail.
There were also significant concerns about the impact on rehabilitation, should inmates be further cut off from their loved ones.
Feelings of depression and isolation, particularly for the large proportion of inmates with mental illness, could also heighten, the woman said.
The new regime is expected to begin on May 1, and will be reviewed after six months.
Mr Rattenbury said he recognised the importance of networks of families and friends for prisoner rehabilitation.
But he said the changes were needed to ensure all inmates had equal access to visitors, arguing that currently visiting times were being booked out well in advance by friends of family of certain inmates.
Mr Rattenbury said that by further breaking up visits by accommodation units, rather than the current method of prisoner classification, all detainees would have "fair access".
"The new visiting schedule at the AMC reflects the growing population within the jail and the need to give every detainee equal access to visits," Mr Rattenbury said.
"The new schedule allows two visit opportunities per week for each accommodation unit, of up to an hour each visit," he said.
"For some detainees this is more time than what they have been able to access in recent months."
But another opponent of the changes, Kathleen Tully, wife of prisoner Cameron Tully, said there must be a better way.
"They are proposing to cut the visiting hours from eight hours a week to two, which is against everything the Alexander Maconochie Centre stands for," she said.
"Part of rehabilitation is maintaining close ties to supporting families. This is terribly unfair for families, for children and for the inmates themselves."
Ms Tully said the current regulations allowed family members to travel from interstate and visit an inmate for four or five days in a row, which was important during testing times.
"This change will not help people are there must be a better proposal to put forward."
