Call for inmates to be issued baby toothbrushes in Canberra’s violent jail
In a bid to curb violence at Canberra’s notoriously violent prison, the ACT shadow corrections minister has suggested an interesting replacement to conventional toothbrushes for prisoners.
Canberra Star
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The hardened thugs inside Canberra’s notoriously violent prison should be issued with silicone baby toothbrushes because they are too often turning the standard issue toothbrushes into shivs, the ACT opposition says.
Opposition spokeswoman for corrections Giulia Jones on Friday said a recent attack on a prisoner was “more proof that the prison is rife with shivs and other weapons”.
She said toothbrushes and razor blades were being fashioned into makeshift knives, or “shivs”.
Replacing standard toothbrushes with a silicone toothbrushes that slip over the end of a prisoner’s finger — the same type that some parents use to brush their babies’ teeth — would make it harder for inmates to fashion weapons.
“Once one prisoner is carrying one, other prisoners will feel the need to carry one for their own safety,” Ms Jones said.
“It’s a very low situation when you have that many sharpened instruments inside the prison.”
An unprecedented security sweep at the ACT’s only prison, Alexander Maconochie Centre, late last year uncovered weapons, drugs, mobile phones and an improvised tattoo gun, among other contraband.
A scathing report into the prison, also released late last year, revealed guards found 63 weapons — half of them shivs — during searches in 2018.
The same report revealed the prison’s internal disciplinary system as “too soft”, and found that many assaults inside the jail stemmed from the illicit drug trade.
The latest attack on a prisoner, David Laipato, was only made public because his father was coincidently at Canberra Hospital and saw his son was being wheeled into intensive care.
The motive for the attack on him is unknown and police are investigating.
Corrections minister Shane Rattenbury told ABC Radio it was “really unfortunate” Laipato’s family were not told about the serious assault before they spotted him at hospital.
Mr Rattenbury said he expected charges to be laid over the attack on Laipato once police complete their investigation.
This week, the Canberra Star revealed a further security blunder at the centre, when a domestic violence thug — who cannot be named — used a contraband mobile phone to terrorise his former partner.
Ms Jones on Friday said she plans to speak directly with Mr Rattenbury next week about her proposals to curb violence at the prison.