Government 'failing' on Canberra prison reforms

Winnunga Nimmityjah Aborignal Health Service CEO Julie Tongs said Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury had done nothing to progress some of the most troubling findings in the report, including the lack of rights for women in the prison and the failure to separate them from the men.

She said the prison was failing to live up to the human rights compliance it claimed to champion.

The territory's Inspector of Correctional Services Neil McAllister's tabled the first full review of treatment of remandees in the Alexander Maconochie Centre in the Legislative Assembly in February 2019, making 39 concerning findings about conditions inside the prison.

"We run around and do a review and a report and nothing seems to get implemented," Ms Tongs said.

"I'm not sure how many reviews we need to have before we actually action them. Before you even look at implementing a report there's another one that has started."

Ms Tongs said the government needed to better protect women at the prison.

"A lot of women are in there because of family breakdowns and domestic violence," she said.

"There's been physical and sexual abuse and all sorts of trauma the women face from a very young age.

"Then they get put in a predominately male prison where they have to walk past the male prisoners to go anywhere, like to the health centre.

"All you do is re-traumatise those women."

Women used to be housed in cottages but were moved to the main part of the prison in 2017. The government said at the time the decision was made in consultation with oversight agencies and human rights. The review found the move was "a significant limitation of the women's human rights".

Other concerning issues were the frequent use of lockdowns, Ms Tongs said, and a move away from a focus on rehabilitation.

"If you want to keep going in the same direction you keep doing what you're doing," she said.

"Otherwise make a conscious decision to turn it around and into what you intended it to be."

Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury was contacted for comment but a response was not received by deadline.

Opposition spokeswoman for corrections Giulia Jones the government had simply lost interest in running a functional prison.

"The Inspector of Correctional Services' first report, and his subsequent reports, made clear that the Alexander Maconochie Centre is an anti-human rights prison," she said.

"One year on, the inappropriate housing of remandees and the mistreatment of women continues. The minister's lack of care in addressing these problems must be condemned.

"This is a long-serving government that has simply lost interest in running a functional prison. More of the same old and tired thinking will only lead to worse results."

The jail was opened in 2008 and was trumpeted at the time as Australia's first human rights-complaint prison.