Firefighters have been called out to the ACT's new jail in Hume more than 30 times since its opening last month as prisoners flout the jail's tough anti-smoking rules and its fire alarm system works through its glitches.
An Emergency Services Authority spokesman said the Fire Brigade had responded to 33 calls to the Alexander Maconochie Centre, responding to automatic fire alarms triggered by the centre's ultra-sensitive smoke alarm system.
The Government has banned prisoners and staff lighting up inside any of the jail's buildings, including cells and cottages, and any smoking indoors sets off the fire alarms. A spokeswoman for Corrections Minister John Hargreaves said yesterday that ''a couple'' of the call-outs had been caused by inmates lighting up in their cells but most of the calls were because of teething problems with the alarm system.
''This only happened on a couple of occasions and the prisoners were spoken to about it,'' the spokeswoman said.
She said the alarm system was being tested through ''real life events''.
''In complexes like this the alarm system often requires fine tuning,'' she said.
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