The closing date for submissions was Friday, 27 July 2012

The Minister of Corrections has written to the committee asking that it consider, alongside the bill as introduced, further amendments proposed on a draft Supplementary Order Paper. The amendments include proposals which would allow the Department of Corrections to require a phone company to provide it with the personal unlock codes or keys to SIM cards, prison managers to authorise non-custodial staff to read prisoners’ mail (for the purpose of ascertaining whether it might be withheld), drinking water available to prisoners to be of a standard reasonably equivalent to that supplied to the public, any prisoner being segregated because of a risk of self-harm be stripsearched on admission to an At Risk Unit, and the department to keep recordings of prisoners’ phone calls for up to two years before having to erase them, except in some defined circumstances.

The bill is available for download from the `Related documents´ panel. Print copies can be ordered online from Bennetts Government Bookshops.

The committee requires 2 copies of each submission if made in writing. Those wishing to include any information of a private or personal nature in a submission should first discuss this with the clerk of the committee, as submissions are usually released to the public by the committee. Those wishing to appear before the committee to speak to their submissions should state this clearly and provide a daytime telephone contact number. To assist with administration please supply your postcode and an email address if you have one.

Further guidance on making a submission can be found from the Making a Submission to a Parliamentary Select Committee link in the `Related documents´ panel.