- Not all of the psychological wounds of the prison community have healed. Even though the Department offered psychological support, many staff and prisoners who were at Greenough in July 2018, told us they still had some level of post-traumatic stress as a result of what they experienced.
- Foreign national prisoners subject to deportation do not have access to resources to help them pursue their right of appeal. At Greenough, the Case Management Coordinator did provide some support, but this not not enough for foreign national prisoners to engage in a fair review process.
- Staff did not feel supported by local management or head office, and morale, although improved from 2016, was still low. Changes to work conditions and entitlements had also been applied. These were estate wide and not led by Greenough as some staff believed. But this further deteriorated relationships between staff and management. We recommended that the Department take a proactive approach to address unresolved trauma as a way to start rebuilding trust and strengthening relationships.
- Recreation officers were redeployed frequently, and prisoners could not get out of units to the recreation hall or oval. Lack of recreation increased everyone’s stress.
- Recreation officers were not redeployed on weekends, so football games took place on the oval, however, prisoners who were not playing could not spectate and spent the time locked in their units.
- At most prisons, prisoners can make a call every 10 minutes. But at Greenough prisoners had to wait an hour between calls to make access fair. Prisoners spent a lot of time lining up but did not have the certainty that they would get an opportunity to make a call, and this caused tensions.
- When prisoners experienced a loss, family were invited in to grieve, but sorry time did not happen at the cultural place. Welfare calls were not always offered.
- Prisoner survey respondents said that the quality of food was poor. Meals at Greenough are prepared, cooked and then chilled. Over the next couple of days, the food is reheated and served, but not all foods can withstand this process.
- Infrastructure limitations at the prison impacted many aspects of daily life, but Unit 1 was particularly challenging. Staff had to manage very different groups in one small space, for example, people in psychological distress, new arrivals and people on punishment regimes.
- Infrastructure and amenities in minimum-security Unit 6 were limited and other than the new rowing machine, much of the gym equipment was made from repurposed everyday items.
- Recruitment to attract health clinicians to Greenough had limited success. Although the health centre was run by a dedicated team, they were overstretched and could not always service the operational or day to day needs of the prisoners.
- Although staff worked respectfully, health care was not targeted for Aboriginal prisoners who wanted more traditional healing practices. There were no Aboriginal clinicians or health workers to build cultural safety.
- Vulnerable prisoners are supported by the Prison Support Officer and the Aboriginal Visitors Scheme. Both these important welfare tools had not been resourced as stand alone services during a period of unavoidable long term leave. This left the peer support team overstretched and under resourced to do their valuable cultural work.
- Although the gatehouse worked well, it was busy, and staff relied on manual systems to hand out and return keys and radios. There was limited scanning technology although randomised checks and the drug detection team mitigated some of the risks.
- Valuable pre-release services were provided by the Transitional Manager and Regional Alliance West. They collaborated to link prisoners with community supports. But only three prisoners were on the Prisoner Employment Program, a scheme to connect prisoners with work upon their release.
- Prisoners were clear that there were not enough treatment programs or voluntary rehabilitation and life skills courses to help them overcome their struggles with addiction, relationships and violent behaviours.