This is the fifth time we have inspected Greenough Regional Prison (‘Greenough’). The inspection took place in late May/early June 2016. The prison has a capacity of 334 and accommodates a mix of minimum, medium and maximum security men and women.
At the last inspection in 2013 we said that the prison: ‘generally goes about its business in an efficient way, free of major controversies and major incidents.’ However, we expressed concern about the future: ‘it is in the midst of some very significant changes…. These pose some very real challenges and some potential risks’. This included a rapidly increasing prisoner population and a shift to accommodating more women prisoners. This continued to be the case in 2016.
This inspection also took place in the context of an increasingly difficult financial environment. Over 2015-2016, the Department of Corrective Services (‘the Department’) had to manage an 8.3 per cent increase in prisoner numbers, but a fall in income from $905 million to $889 million.