Prison staff, inmate support services, health providers and human rights advocates have called for the ACT government to adopt all 73 recommendations from the independent review of Canberra's jail.
The major review, tabled in the ACT Assembly on Tuesday by the Inspector of Correctional Services Neil McAllister, has recommended a raft of changes to address ongoing issues at Australia's first human rights-compliant jail.
The ACT Human Rights Commission was one of the first to call for the recommendations to be adopted, highlighting "unresolved problems with accommodation" and "lack of equality of opportunity to facilities, programs and services for female detainees".
Ongoing overcrowding issues at prison, compounded by having over 100 detainees on protection orders and unable to be housed within the general population, has resulted in women being relocated from the cottage-style units to which they had been originally assigned, into the former high care security unit.
They are surrounded on three sides by blockhouse male accommodation.
The review found women are "disadvantaged with regard to access to green space, recreation opportunities, employment, and reintegration programs and their proximity to men's units exposes them to verbal harassment and abuse".
Karen Toohey, the ACT Discrimination Commissioner, said that rather than create an rehabilitative environment for female prisoners, the jail created "barriers to the potential for their reintegration into the ACT community".
"Women at the AMC must be accommodated in appropriate accommodation," Ms Toohey said.
The commissioner's call was fully supported by the head of the Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service, Julie Tongs.
"This review has validated everything we have been saying about the jail and prisoner conditions within the jail for many years," Ms Tongs said.
"It's absolutely wrong that women detainees, some of whom have been victims of violence, should be housed in the same environment as the perpetrators of that violence.
"Without the proper environment and programs inside, the ACT prison is setting people up to fail. That's why the recidivism rate is so high."
Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury said that he would take immediate steps to provide women prisoners with more amenable outdoor areas and gardens.
"I would like to see upgrades to areas outside the [women's] building and I've asked Corrective Services to get on with this work," he said.
He also admitted "there's not much we can do" about the jail's overcrowding issue in the short to medium term.
"The prison takes what the court sends," he said.
The Commonwealth Public Service Union, whose members staff the prison, wants the "chronic understaffing" issue at the prison, highlighted in the report, addressed as a priority.
Brooke Muscat-Bentley, the union's deputy national president, said the "staffing profile of the prison has not kept up with the significant increase in detainee numbers" and has urged the appointment of an additional 60 officers.
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While the government claims there have been deliberate efforts to recruit more female staff, these have been largely unsuccessful and the union says more are desperately needed.
The plight of women prisoners was also an issue of concern for Prisoners Aid ACT.
The support group's president, Dr Caroline Doyle, said women are "at a disadvantage in their current accommodation, recreation opportunities, employment and reintegration programs".
She supported the inspector's recommendation for improving education and training programs for current detainees, with constant reports from prisoners about the extreme boredom.
