MOUNT Gambier City Council will urge the State Government to mandate that all Mount Gambier Prison inmates are returned to their place of residence upon release.
Mayor Lynette Martin and chief executive officer Andrew Meddle will meet with Corrections Minister Corey Wingard next month to discuss the matter.
It follows the Department for Correctional Services last month revealing the long-standing agreement that all prisoners are returned to their place of residence was not mandatory or enforceable.
The department revealed it did not track the movements of prisoners and had no statistics over how many inmates have made the Blue Lake city their home.
Councillor Steven Perryman requested the mayor write to Mr Wingard and South Australian Premier Steven Marshall to convey council’s “deep disappointment” regarding prisoner release in the city.
Cr Perryman requested the letter outline the claim it was “a long-standing procedure that all inmates be transferred to Adelaide for release.”
The senior councillor also called on the mayor to express council’s concern the Mount Gambier community was not informed of any change in procedure.
He urged the minister to act immediately to reinstate the former procedure and cease releasing inmates into the Mount Gambier community.
Since details regarding prisoner release procedures surfaced last month, two incidents involving Adelaide-based inmates have occurred following their release into the Mount Gambier community.
Cr Perryman said those incidents had caused the community “some alarm.”
He asked the mayor to seek more data, information and figures from the State Government on behalf of the council.
“It is not conceivable that data is not kept regarding details of prisoner releases from the Mount Gambier Prison and (the letter should) request to know how many inmates have been released from the Mount Gambier Prison directly into the Mount Gambier community annually for the past five years,” Cr Perryman said.
Cr Perryman also requested clarification about the type of crimes inmates released into Mount Gambier had been sentenced for and their period of incarceration.
He said a letter would “formalise” what answers needed to be sought when Mr Meddle and Ms Martin meet with the minister next month.
“If there has been a change of procedure and there are flow-on effects into our community, we have a right to know about them,” he said.
“So that as a community we can prepare, support, plan, act or oppose.”
It is not the first time Cr Perryman has expressed his opposition towards the State Government’s operations involving the Mount Gambier Prison.
In 2013, he refused an invitation to attend an expansion opening labelling the celebration “bizarre” and “wrong.”
Also at that time, former councillor Jim Maher raised his own concerns about whether the State Government’s promise that inmates would not be released into the Mount Gambier community was a “long-term concrete guarantee.”
Since then the Mount Gambier Prison has undergone a further expansion and is now the second largest correctional facility in the state.
As a result, it is understood the release of prisoners in to the Mount Gambier community is placing increased pressure on police resources.
Councillor Paul Jenner questioned why the expansion was not met with a commitment to supply more resources to the city.
“When the State Government shifted the jail, council asked them for more services to be delivered into Mount Gambier and they denied us,” he said.
“Since then the jail has expanded three times and we have more of the inmates living in Mount Gambier, yet we are still not getting more services.”
City Council is the latest party to place pressure on the State Government to provide more information.
Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell recently revealed he had held talks with Corrections Minister Corey Wingard in a bid to push for an in-depth study into prisoners’ movements.
“I would like to see a long-term study completed by the department to examine these issues more closely and provide actual facts and data around the release of prisoners,” Mr Bell said.
