- The Inspector, in his Overview to the report, described Eastern Goldfields as a “prison in transition”. A new prison is being constructed and is due to open in late 2015.
- The prison was coping as well given the impending transition to the new facility, however, the infrastructure had outlived its ‘use-by’ date.
- More significantly, the majority of prisoners would prefer to stay in the infrastructure-impoverished Eastern Goldfields Prison, in country and close to family, rather than move to another better-equipped facility.
- An OICS analysis of the social and cultural context for an Aboriginal prison in the Eastern Goldfields, and in particular the various Aboriginal groupings in the area provides insight into the population of the area that may be reflected in the new prison, and how prison operations and services can be tailored to meet the cultural needs of this population.
- There were 19 female prisoners at the time of the inspection. In general the women were satisfied with life for them at the prison – mostly attributed to being grateful to be in country.
- There was scope for the prison to more actively pursue access for the women to section 95 activities.
- There was appropriate integration between the male and female prisoners during recreation, in education and supervised work locations.
- There was no facility for Skype contact.
- Better access to more relevant cross-cultural training for staff was needed.
- Strategies to increase the custodial staff complement of Aboriginal officers should be developed
- Warburton Work Camp was significantly underused and the Department needed to implement strategies to address this.