Authorities should have been better prepared for a large-scale prison riot at Ravenhall’s Metropolitan Remand Centre when more than 300 prisoners armed with makeshift weapons ran “amok” on June 30 last year, an investigation has found.
The MRC “failed to monitor … and assess ongoing risk mitigation strategies” when two “passive protests” broke out on June 25 and 28 after the canteen ran out of tobacco ahead of the statewide smoking ban, the investigation by former Victoria Police deputy commissioner Kieran Walshe found.
If a formal risk assessment had been undertaken after the first passive protest, the likelihood of further “disturbances” would have been identified and damage could have been mitigated, the Walshe report found.
“The MRC undertook a whiteboard exercise on June 27 following the first passive protest on how to manage another passive protest, including details on the possible approach if the protest became aggressive,” the report added. “The investigation was advised that this planning did not assist much because most areas of the prison were breached.”
And while the smoking ban was “definitely the catalyst”, overcrowding and the ability to breach internal fences had escalated the riot.
Among the report’s 17 recommendations – not all of which have been made public for security reasons – are that internal fences and gates be strengthened.
Meanwhile, a “deficient” and “out-of-date” emergency management plan – which “needs to be extensively rewritten” – had seriously halted the ability of emergency services personnel to bring the riot under control, Mr Walshe said. “[The plan] caused Corrections Victoria to focus solely on the tactical response and left attending agencies inadequately briefed on arrival, and so unable to make necessary decisions around risks, priorities and resources.”
Rampaging prisoners threw rocks at staff, rammed internal gates, broke down cell doors and lit numerous fires, while chanting “we want OX”, in reference to pouch tobacco. It was the largest prison riot in Victoria’s history and caused more than $10 million damage.
