Inmate attacks on jail staff were higher in the ACT than any other Australian jurisdiction in the last financial year, a report says.
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Figures, contained in the Productivity Commission's report on government services, show the Canberra prison system was the worst for prisoner-on-staff assaults, at a rate 1.80 per 100 prisoners, in 2016-17.
Victoria (1.63), Western Australia (1.60), and NSW (1.55) posted the next highest rates.
There were no serious assaults on prison officers recorded in the ACT.
The ACT also recorded the highest rate of prisoner-on-prisoner serious assaults, with 3.59 per 100 prisoners, according to the data,
Queensland was second highest with a rate of 3.08, while the Northern Territory had the lowest at 0.18.
The figure is a spike on the previous year, where the ACT had the third lowest number of Australian jurisdictions at 0.75, although it was in line with the 2014-15 figure of 3.21.
The ACT placed third, behind NSW (27.48) and Victoria (20.88), for prisoner-on-prisoner assaults with a rate of 15.72 assaults per 100 prisoners.
The number is a drop on the previous years result of 16.92 and only the third highest result in the jurisdiction over the past six years.
The "serious assaults" category included all sexual assaults and acts of physical violence that caused injuries that required overnight hospitalisation or ongoing medical treatment.
While the "assaults" classification referred to physical violence that caused physical injury but did not require overnight hospitalisation or on-going medical treatment.
Despite the alarming figures, the report warned Canberra's small prison population could distort the numbers.
"A relatively high rate in a jurisdiction with a small prisoner population may represent only a very small number of actual incidents," the report said.
The report also said the data could not be directly compared across jurisdictions because each state and territory had different reporting practices and had varied arrangements for the delivering prisoner health care.
"Not all jurisdictions have access to the medical information needed to accurately classify incidents into the assault categories used in this indicator," it said.
Canberra University school of law and justice head Professor Lorana Bartels said violence at the jail could be attributed to a number of factors, including drug use and the mixing of prisoners.
"Our traditionally more community-oriented sentencing regime – where only the most serious, usually violent offences result in imprisonment – might translate to angrier, harder people in prison," she said.
"The main challenge probably comes from the fact of having all detainees – unsentenced and sentenced, max to min, men and women, in the same facility. In addition, it is a population that is very connected on the outside, i.e., outside beefs are brought inside.
"There is anecdotal evidence of increasing use of ice inside (and in the general population), which is associated with higher aggression, compared with heroin."
Professor Bartels also suggested that reduced out-of-cell hours could play an important factor.
"The report details that out-of-cell hours were 14.1 in 2009-10 and 8.9 in 2016-17.
"Violence tends to increase as out-of-cell hours decrease."
However, Justice and Community Safety Directorate spokeswoman said there was an " inherent potential for conflict" among prisoners at all jails.
"There are often pre-existing relationships between individuals who are incarcerated at the AMC. "These issues are not unique to the ACT; however, as the ACT is a one-prison system, association issues, separation and the dynamic between certain detainees is something that is carefully managed by ACT Corrective Services staff, with the interest of detainee and staff safety paramount."
The spokeswoman said the jail had employed an extra 14 guards from 2015-16 to 2016-17 to manage the growing population.
ACT Corrective Services had also a multidisciplinary panel of senior staff to review and respond to violence, aggression or assaults within the AMC, including referrals to ACT Policing.
"The government's response to the Moss Review reflects our commitment to implementing transformational change and sharing with the community what we will do differently to improve the care, safety and health of detainees.
"The government acknowledges the importance of ensuring that assaults, including those committed within the AMC, are thoroughly investigated with a view to holding offenders to account through prosecution of offences."
The spokeswoman also said the government had conducted a recent security review of operation and had already begun work on the recommendations.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story said there were no ACT figures available for serious assaults on prison officers in the report. In fact, there were zero serious assaults on prison officers. This was a reporter error.
