Current inspections and reviews
This list includes:
- Inspections and Reviews which have been announced and are in progress
- Inspections and Reviews which have been completed and a report is being prepared
The inspection will assess Broome Regional Prison, with a focus on:
- Governance: Assessing the prison’s strategic vision and its connections with the broader community.
- Early Days in Custody: Assessing the support available for people on remand.
- Daily Life: Including living conditions, hygiene, contact with the outside world, and access to purposeful activities.
- Health and Support: Assessing physical and mental health services, and substance abuse treatment.
- Rehabilitation and Reparation: Assessing the provisions for education, employment, programs, and release preparation.
- Security: Including procedural security and prisoner transport.
All inspection work will be conducted within the framework of the Inspectorate’s Revised Code of Inspection Standards for Adult Custodial Services.
The inspection report is expected to be tabled in the fourth quarter of 2025.
An announced inspection of Wandoo Rehabilitation Prison was conducted between 20-25 July 2025.
The inspection was scoped to focus on 20 selected standards within the framework of the Inspectorate’s Standards for Adult Custodial Services, including:
- Governance: Standards relating to strategic planning, human resources, and community relations.
- Early Days in Custody: The standard relating to orientation.
- Duty of Care: The standards relating to feeling safe, and victims of abuse and trauma.
- Daily Life: The standards relating to living conditions, hygiene, clothing and bedding, contact with family and visits, food and canteen, and purposeful activities.
- Health and Support: The standards relating to physical health care, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and support.
- Rehabilitation: The standards relating to classification, sentence administration and case management, and programs and education.
- Managing Behaviour: The standards relating to encouraging positive behaviour.
- Security: The standards relating to infrastructure, and procedural security.
The inspection report is expected to be tabled in the first quarter of 2026.
The inspection of Casuarina Prison will assess 25 selected standards within the framework of the inspectorate’s draft Standards for Adult Custodial Services:
- Governance: Evaluating the prison’s strategic direction, leadership, and human resource management.
- Early Days in Custody: Reviewing the treatment of individuals upon entry, including orientation procedures, and support for those on remand.
- Duty of Care: Ensuring access to legal support and safeguarding prisoners from bullying, abuse, violence, and intimidation.
- Daily Life: Assessing living conditions, opportunities for meaningful activity, and maintaining family connections.
- Health and Support: Evaluating the availability and quality of physical and mental health services, substance abuse treatment, and culturally appropriate support.
- Rehabilitation: Reviewing processes for prisoner assessment, case management, and needs related to employment, education, and program participation.
- Behaviour Management: Promoting positive staff-prisoner relationships and examining practices around isolation, segregation, and the use of force or restraints.
- Security: Assessing physical infrastructure, search procedures, emergency response management, and prisoner transport.
The inspection report is expected to be tabled in the second quarter of 2026.
The inspection of Roebourne Regional Prison will assess 16 selected standards within the framework of the inspectorate’s draft Standards for Adult Custodial Services:
- Governance: Focussing on human resources – all staff possess the necessary skills and authority to manage people in custody safely and effectively.
- Daily Life: Assessing living conditions, maintaining connections, food, canteen, and purposeful activities.
- Health and Support: Evaluating the availability and quality of physical and mental health services and culturally appropriate support.
- Rehabilitation: Inspecting employment, programs, education, and preparation for release.
- Managing Behaviour: How does the prison encourage positive behaviour?
- Security: Focusing on relationships between staff and prisoners.
The inspection report is expected to be tabled in the second quarter of 2026.
The inspection of Bunbury Regional Prison will assess 24 selected standards within the framework of the Inspectorate’s Standards for Adult Custodial Services:
- Governance: Evaluating the prison’s strategic direction, leadership, and human resource management.
- Early Days in Custody: Reviewing the treatment of individuals upon entry, including orientation procedures, and support for those on remand.
- Duty of Care: Ensuring access to legal support and safeguarding prisoners from bullying, abuse, violence, and intimidation.
- Daily Life: Assessing living conditions, provision of a varied and balanced diet, opportunities for meaningful activity, and maintaining family connections.
- Health and Support: Evaluating the availability and quality of physical and mental health services, substance abuse treatment, and culturally appropriate support.
- Rehabilitation: Reviewing processes for prisoner assessment, case management, and needs related to employment, education, program participation and preparation for release.
- Behaviour Management: Promoting positive staff-prisoner relationships, encouraging positive behaviour, and examining practices around isolation and segregation.
- Security: Assessing physical infrastructure, procedural security practices, incident and emergency management, and prisoner transport.
The inspection report is expected to be tabled in the third quarter of 2026.
Contact with and connection to family and friends are key factors to maintaining the wellbeing of people in custody and their rehabilitation prospects. In this Office’s 2018 review examining this contact, we found the Department of Justice was struggling to meet its legislative and policy requirements for family and social visits, due to overcrowding within the prison system. This was further compounded by staff shortages. Since that time the daily average population has increased by approximately 10 per cent from 6,873 to 7,581, staff shortages have continued to be a challenge, and the effect both of these problems have had on social visits remains considerably pronounced.
Since our last review, we have also found in-person social and family visits have been severely impacted by departmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the height of the pandemic, visit capacities were reduced to allow for space restrictions and other measures were implemented, such as the installation of acrylic screens and the banning of food and drinks. Many of these measures, while seeking to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, diminished the visits experience for prisoners and their family and friends. Furthermore, post-pandemic, we have continued to find some of these measures remain in practice at various prisons.
The pandemic compelled the Department to fast-track the installation of e-visit technology to ensure contact with friends, families, and official visitors could be maintained. While they should not replace in-person visits, e-visits can supplement social contact and can also help provide people in custody with a connection to friends and family who are a considerable distance away. This has been a positive, and largely successful investment by the Department. However, issues including a lack of staffing to facilitate and supervise e-visits and technological issues have been found to be ongoing concerns.
Challenges also exist for those whose primary contact with family and friends occurs through the phone system. While it is the most frequent form of contact, our inspection work continues to find unequal access and competition for phones are ongoing issues. For example, in 2022 we recommended the Department increase the number of phones at Greenough Regional Prison to mitigate the high demand. In response, the Department outlined a business case to replace the Prisoner Telephone System as part of its Long-term Custodial Technology Strategy. To date, the replacement has not occurred.
This is a follow-up review assessing progressing by the Department to our 2018 review. There is only one Term of Reference:
1. Has the Department of Justice made adequate progress since the 2018 review to ensure prisoners are maintaining contact with their family and others.
Many women are received into custody experiencing a range of chronic health issues, including substance withdrawal, undiagnosed health conditions or untreated mental health conditions. And it is recognised that incarcerated women have increased incidence of health conditions. A number of these women will also enter custody pregnant, which further increases the demand for sufficient health services.
Therefore, access to appropriate health care and support is essential for pregnant women in custody.
Women in custody are a vulnerable cohort, who are exposed to complex risk factors. For some women, imprisonment during pregnancy can provide greater access to medical care than what they may have received in the community. However, for others, prison can disrupt a woman’s antenatal care and sense of agency around their pregnancy journey and planning. In particular, pregnant women on short periods of remand may experience greater challenges of receiving maternal services.
Maternal imprisonment has been associated with poorer health outcomes for the mother and infant. These include, a greater risk of adverse outcomes such as preterm birth, still birth, low birth weight and admission to special care nurseries. Mothers often experience distress and isolation during pregnancy and are more likely to have mental-ill health. The use of tobacco and substance abuse while pregnant prior to (and sometimes during) incarceration is also common.
Previous OICS inspection reports have found a lack of suitable accommodation options for pregnant women. In particular, pregnant women in regional facilities often do not have access to obstetric health care and are subsequently transferred out of their community to metropolitan facilities. This is despite some regional facilities having dedicated mother and baby units, which have not been utilised for their intended purpose. Where this type of accommodation is available, it is limited to metropolitan facilities.
Previously, we have found inconsistencies in the services available to pregnant women across the Western Australian custodial estate. This often results in inequitable access to support and healthcare based on location.
This review will examine the management and supports available to pregnant women in the adult custodial estate. The terms of reference are:
- Does the Department of Justice provide pregnant women in custody support and antenatal care equivalent to community standards of care?
- What is the experience of pregnant women in custody?
A report on this review is anticipated to be available to the public.
Page last updated: 25 Nov 2025