The troublesome prison truck, known as Romeo 5, has been a multi-wheeled bungle of embarrassing proportions since it was hurriedly delivered into service in July 2018.

Ever since the Mitsubishi truck was commissioned it has been a driving disaster, with drivers describing it as a vehicle of "last resort" due to its size, its lack of a reversing camera and its ill-handling characteristics.

The trail of automotive woe began back when it was ordered, with the specialist Queensland vehicle builder expressing reservations as to whether the prisoner module would fit on the chassis and whether it was even fit for purpose.

But the tender went ahead anyway, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in directorate funds were effectively wasted when the corrections officers on the transport team avoided using it and for the 15 months between November 2018 and March 2020, the truck was off the road for 277 days.

The issue worsened when Worksafe ACT issued a prohibition notice on the vehicle because when it carried even four detainees and two officers, it exceeded its gross vehicle mass and presented a workplace health and safety hazard.

Decisions on appropriate prison transport have long been a bugbear with the Justice and Community Safety directorate.

The decision to transport a handcuffed prisoner into a standard Toyota Camry without even a duress alarm for a trip to Canberra Hospital in July last year turned into an operational nightmare for the officers involved when the vehicle was repeatedly rammed off the road by an accomplice and the prisoner escaped, leading to a massive police hunt.

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In a baffling decision, that medium-sized Toyota sedan - which was a tight squeeze in the back for three adults and subsequently became a mangled mess as a result of the very public escape - had been bought by the directorate to replace a much roomier Toyota Hiace van expressly designed to convey at-risk prisoners.

Evident from these multiple problems has been the complete lack of consultation between the directorate and the corrections officers charged with using and driving the vehicles on a day to day basis.

This issue was highlighted by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts which has recommended that "a group of representative staff from the Court Transport Unit are involved in the procurement process [of transport vehicles] and are able to test drive vehicles prior to their procurement".

ACT Corrective Services should be given full control over its prison transport selection, the committee said, "through feedback provided from a working group of representative staff, [to] devise and communicate its own specifications for the vehicle; and [ensure] it has a reversing camera".

It also recommended that the lease for Romeo 5 "be terminated, and that a new vehicle be commissioned".

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