I am deeply concerned by the incident at the Risdon Prison Complex yesterday. The custodial officer involved is now home, and is being offered every support necessary.
Violence against correctional staff is utterly unacceptable and there is no excuse for this behaviour.
This reaffirms our resolve to introduce minimum mandatory sentences for serious assaults. There has to be a stronger deterrent and response to this violence.
The Government is also working with prison management and the department on a package of measures to address issues within the prison service, some of which are longstanding.
Importantly, this includes expediting work to appoint a Tasmanian Custodial Inspector to provide ongoing, independent oversight of the prison.
This was one of the key recommendations of the Palmer Report, of which the previous Labor-Green Government sat on its hands and failed to deliver.
It is however important to recognise that issues at Risdon Prison are longstanding.
The Palmer Report also highlighted the need for cultural change.
The Prison Director Brian Edwards was recruited to implement the change management process and has achieved a great deal, but of course systemic change takes considerable time to achieve and there is clearly still work to do.
As a Government, we are committed to doing absolutely everything we can to protect workers and improve the Tasmanian Prison Service.
We have recruited an additional 65 new correctional staff and have recently advertised for more recruits, we have invested an additional $9.2 million and we have engaged specialist expertise on self-harm prevention.
Vanessa Goodwin, Minister for Corrections
