Former deputy police commissioner to lead inquiry into Melbourne prison riot
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Version 0 of 1. The former Victorian deputy police commissioner Kieran Walshe, widely recognised for his work responding to the Black Saturday bushfires, will lead an independent investigation into what caused 300 prisoners to riot in Melbourne on Tuesday. The deputy premier, James Merlino, made the announcement on Thursday as he described the extensive damage rioters caused to the Metropolitan remand centre in Ravenhall during the unrest, which took police 15 hours to contain. Merlino said he had since toured the maximum security prison, and described the scene as “shocking and disgraceful”. “This was wanton criminal behaviour, and those responsible will feel the full force of the law,” he said. He said Walsh was the best person to investigate and would do it as thoroughly and quickly as possible. The riot was believed to have been prompted by a statewide smoking ban implemented in prisons from Wednesday. The corrections minister, Wade Noonan, said as well as Walshe’s independent report, a police investigation would look into criminal acts carried out by the prisoners, while a department of corrections review would examine the staff response. Walshe’s review was expected to be delivered to parliament by November, Noonan said. Asked if it would be made public, Noonan said the government would release “as much as we possibly can”. “Obviously there are some sensitivities around operations of prisons and we need to be mindful of that,” he said. Noonan dismissed media reports the estimated damage bill was $10m, saying the figure had not come from his department and it was too early to provide an accurate estimate. “That’s not a confirmed figure,” he said. But the corrections commissioner, Jan Shuard, admitted not much of the prison grounds had been left untouched. Inmates had taken their bedding and strewn it across the yards, she said. Prison workshops, where recreational activities such as gardening were carried out, had been destroyed. Basins and toilets had been smashed, she said, while furniture had also been broken. The master control room had been breached, though prisoners had made it only as far as the staff room, she said. “By and large, most areas have some damage,” Shuard said. She would not comment on reports inmates had managed to take cell doors off their hinges. “I’m not going to comment further around the damage,” she responded. Several hundred police officers responded to the riot when it broke out at 12.20pm on Tuesday. It took until 3am the following day to contain the prisoners. The public were not in danger at any time, authorities said. The prison remained in lockdown, with movements among prisoners limited, Shuard said, while family members would not be able to visit prisoners until the damage had been repaired. “That doesn’t mean prisoners aren’t getting normal access to food, medication and things that they require,” Shuard said. “But we will move as slowly and as carefully as we need to do to repair the prison.” The department of corrections had been preparing prisoners for about 18 months for the introduction of the smoking ban, she said, providing them with access to quit aids and information, and increasing their allowance for recreational activities. When the ban was implemented on Tuesday, about 20% of the prison population who were smokers were yet to quit, she said. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data indicates roughly 80% of prisoners are smokers. There were no plans to back away from the smoking ban, she said. “You don’t reward that sort of appalling behaviour by bringing about policy changes,” premier Daniel Andrews said on Wednesday. |