Goodwin’s investigation into prisoner release bungles put in the bottom drawer

 Ten months since Attorney-General says investigation started
 Report was to have been available last September
 Tasmanians still unaware of which potentially dangerous prisoners released early
 Goodwin needs to come clean on criminal backgrounds of inmates wrongly released

Ten months after Attorney-General Vanessa Goodwin claimed a wide-ranging investigation was underway into the bungled early release of a string of prisoners from Risdon Jail, the report into the debacle remains nowhere to be seen.

Shadow Attorney-General and Corrections Minister Lara Giddings said Ms Goodwin had now had more than enough time to receive, review and publicly release a report by KPMG which she commissioned last May and was to have been available last September.

Seven prisoners from Risdon were released before their sentences had expired in a series of bungles under Ms Goodwin’s watch, leading to the KPMG audit of prison processes.

“Ms Goodwin needs to come clean with Tasmanians today and release the KPMG report so we can all understand what lead to this debacle and how it was possible that a group of prisoners could walk free before they were due for release or parole,” Ms Giddings said.

“When these botches releases were revealed, the Attorney did direct the chief superintendent or the after hour duty director to sign off on all releases and formed the centralised sentence administration unit.

“But there’s no good reason for the KPMG report to be withheld 10 months after it was first started other than the possibility the Attorney-General is hoping that the matter might be a distant memory for Tasmanians.

“But I can assure the government that the victims of the crimes these prisoners were serving sentences for have not forgotten, just as they have not forgotten how this fiasco rightly caused them to fear for their safety.

“We still have no detail about what crimes each of these seven prisoners were sent to Risdon for committing, just as we have no detail about how long each prisoner was left free before these bungles were discovered and they were returned to prison – and that’s not good enough.

“Nobody is asking Ms Goodwin to reveal the identities of these prisoners, only to explain how this chain of events went so badly wrong – otherwise the community can have no confidence that they are safe under the Hodgman Liberal Government.”

Last August Ms Goodwin confirmed the incorrect releases of prisoners, describing it as “absolutely unacceptable” and confirming the KPMG audit had been underway since last May.

“This information needed to be dragged from the Attorney-General,” Ms Giddings said.

“She had no intention of keeping Tasmanians informed until these incidents were exposed by family members or victims, including a domestic violence survivor who was not told her perpetrator had been allowed out of Risdon before his sentence was up, leaving her in very real fear for her safety.”
Lara Giddings MP Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Corrections Minister