The Department of Corrections, through the Public Prisons Service (PPS), currently manages more than 6,000 offenders daily, at 20 locations throughout the country.
The Department contributes to a government key goal of safer communities by protecting the public and reducing re-offending. As part of protecting the public we need to provide as safe an environment as possible for our people, offenders and the public.
As part of its efforts towards achieving these goals, PPS has developed a National Incident Response Policy that identifies how incidents in prisons will be dealt with to ensure that the response brings the incident to a safe and swift conclusion, minimising the risk to life and damage to property.
Serious incidents in prisons are not common, but when they occur they have the potential to result in injuries to both staff and inmates, as well as damage to property. To ensure consistency and effectiveness in its response to serious incidents, PPS has developed an Incident Response Policy Framework.
This framework provides for:
A structure for incident response, including the level of resource which is applied to different incidents;
Different roles and responsibilities for incident response;
The establishment of an incident response capability, on an “as required” basis, to perform incident response functions; and
Each prison to develop and maintain emergency response plans to assist with the management of incidents and emergencies.
PPS has adopted the Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) for managing incident response.
This international standard provides a framework for handling incident response, and is particularly useful when coordinating an incident response with other agencies (e.g. Police, Fire Service, Ambulance Service).
Each of the 20 prisons has developed comprehensive emergency response plans that outline how civil defence emergencies and critical incidents will be managed.
The emergency response plans are reviewed at least annually, and are developed based on best practice principles. The Department uses the SMEAC (Situation, Mission, Execution, Administration and Logistics, Command and Communication) format for the development of emergency plans.
Emergency plans are an important part of the Department’s requirement, under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002, to continue essential functions to the optimum extent. PPS has developed a business continuity plan (BCP) for each prison to return the prison site to business as usual quickly and minimise risks during an emergency.
The PPS National Incident Response Policy has clear roles and responsibilities for managing incidents. These guidelines identify the different roles, and recognise that responsibilities will vary based on the type and seriousness of an incident.
A clear statement of role and responsibility will allow all staff to understand the authority for calling up, authorising deployment and managing the incident when an incident response is required.
The implementation of this policy (other than for low level incidents) involves mobilising suitably trained and equipped staff on an ‘as needed’ basis to respond to serious incidents. The policy uses rostered custodial staff who have received additional training to respond to incidents when and where required. This approach is similar to the New Zealand Police Armed Offenders Squads (AOS) where AOS members are part-time, drawn from all branches of the Police, and operate on a call-out basis.
Staff trained in incident response initiatives will be located at most of the 20 prison sites, and can provide support on a regional (and where required, national) basis. Specialist training includes negotiation skills, fire fighting and advanced first aid.
Comprehensive debriefs are conducted at the conclusion of an incident response. These debriefs are a good opportunity to review how the incident was managed, and utilise lessons learned for future incident responses.
Implementation of the Incident Response Policy has begun and will continue into 2005/06.