The Canberra community decided on 19 October to remove from its parliament the two most recent ministers for corrections, Mick Gentleman (Labor) and Emma Davidson (Green).

In mid-2023, Minister Gentleman chose not to act on the findings of the second and final report of Neil McAllister, the then independent inspector of correctional services.

Instead, Gentleman went on the attack, suggesting not only that the report was wrong in its conclusion that ACT prison conditions were deteriorating but claiming also that there was progress “that was not recognised in this report”. I must have missed his broadcast in the 18 months since about that progress.

Gentleman knocked back recommendations for more transparency and reporting about jail operations, particularly the transitional release program.

Davidson was minister when staff and former detainees were saying that the Territory’s sole prison was run by a clique, with bashings covered up and with its library a virtual drug supermarket, as reported recently in Pearls.

She was in the job, too, when prisoners died within the Alexander Maconochie Centre this year, and when Professor Ross........

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