Overcrowding at Canberra's only adult jail, home to almost a dozen organised criminal gangs, is putting pressure on staff and detainees, a top prison official has said.
ACT Corrective Services commissioner Leanne Close said the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) had been "very strained" and accommodation proved to be a daily challenge.
The commissioner and other senior officials appeared alongside former corrections minister Dr Marisa Paterson in a budget estimates hearing this week, where they spoke of population pressures, prison gangs, and new security measures.
"The prison is very full at the moment," Dr Paterson told the estimates committee.
Pointing out a drop in the estimated average cost per detainee due to higher detainee numbers, member for Brindabella Deborah Morris asked officials about the unexpected rise in population.
The commissioner confirmed remandees were driving this growth and made up 46 per cent of the prison population which hit 500 at one point, higher than ACT Corrective Services had anticipated in July 2025.
"We have seen a greater increase in people remanded or sentenced in relation to serious violent offending in relation to domestic family violence," Ms Close also said.
Ms Close said it was challenging to separately accommodate sentenced and remanded detainees, based on risk levels and protection orders, and there was pressure on utilities, clothing and food.
"When the prison was designed [15 years ago], they thought the remand numbers would be around about 40 or 50 potentially," Ms Close said.
Officials further noted there were 21 female detainees in the AMC, compared to a much larger male population, requiring complex scheduling to ensure the two groups did not cross paths during education, employment, or healthcare visits.
To ease this movement pressure, the ACT government is designing two new satellite health clinics within the prison.
Ms Close told the estimates committee there were "at least 10 different groups" in the AMC, some affiliated with gangs in the community and some with well-recognised outlaw motorcycle gangs.
Dr Paterson said unlike larger jurisdictions that could distribute prisoners across multiple facilities, the AMC had limited accommodation blocks, meaning rival gang members, co-offenders, and protected persons needed to be managed in close quarters.
The former minister said the outdated design of the complex made it "incredibly difficult" to introduce structured days for detainees, a major issue raised in multiple Healthy Prison Reviews.
Dr Paterson estimated about 70 per cent of people in Canberra jail had non-association orders or protection orders, further complicating accommodation.
Responding to concerns about gang members interacting freely and using the prison for recruitment, Ms Close said the prison's intelligence unit monitored the AMC's telephone system where detainees used "codes" to communicate.
"Our intelligence team works very closely with our security operational team [and] also with ACT Policing, [if] we see some of these associations increasing, then that intelligence is shared across the groups that need to know," the commissioner said.
The former corrections minister said work was also underway to address detainees who continued to perpetrate violence on partners outside the AMC.
In an effort to reduce contraband and drugs entering the AMC, the commissioner said the jail banned visitors who try to pass on items to detainees, and replaced in-person visits with Zoom visits.
Asked about the proportion of contraband introduced by detainees, visitors, and staff in the past year, Ms Close said data about prohibited items found at AMC reflected searches within the prison, fence throws, visitors and detainees.
"[In terms of staff introducing contraband] we've had zero," the commissioner said.
Ms Close revealed discussions with government around introducing drug and alcohol testing for AMC staff, but said it required significant changes in process and would be a long-term project.
Assistant commissioner Jim Taylor-Dayus said the prison had begun using sniffer dogs to search staff every month, visitors will soon need to pass through millimetre-wave scanner, and a new body scanner for the AMC's court transport unit would be installed in September.
Officials were also questioned about a prison guard, recently acquitted of an assault charge, who was accused of extracting suspected contraband by forcing a prisoner's fingers into their own anal area.
Independent MLA for Kurrajong Thomas Emerson asked whether this search tactic followed AMC's standard protocol.
Ms Close said the method was not part of staff training and was "something that became a practice" that officers thought was appropriate for the safety of detainees and themselves.
"Assistant Commissioner Taylor-Dayus and I, both put out information, reminders and additional training to our staff about that issue," the commissioner said.
The committee heard the acquitted staffer continued to be employed by ACT Corrective Services and was being investigated by the Public Service Standards Commission.
