Scanners worth $550,000 are sitting idle at the jail while controversial strip searches of detainees continue.
Almost 300 strip searches of detainees at Canberra's jail could have been avoided last year if full body scanners, which arrived in June, were operational.The ACT government said the delay was to ensure the equipment was safe and staff were trainedTwo Rapiscan X-ray body scanners worth $550,000 were installed at the Alexander Maconochie Centre , but have sat idle because they lacked radiation certification.
While the machines were in the jail but unregistered, there were 292 strip searches carried out in the second half of last year, according to figures provided to the ABC. "It's deplorable, everything they do out there, it takes forever and I think that the sooner they get rid of strip searches, which are very invasive, the better."ACT Inspector of Correctional Services Rebecca Minty said the registration of the scanners was a "really positive development towards reducing harmful strip searches".
She noted the jail's searching policy states that a scanning search is one of the options available to officers on admission to a correctional centre.Authorities have justified strip searching on the basis that it is an effective way to detect contraband that risks the security and good order of a correctional centre.
Data obtained by the Human Rights Law Centre for that same seven-month period the year before shows 2,352 strip searches were conducted and 22 items of contraband found.
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