Overcrowding at Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre Report

Overview

Following an investigation by this Office in 2013, the Ombudsman recommended that the Director-General of the department then responsible for Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) take certain action to relieve overcrowding at BWCC. The Director-General accepted the recommendations.

In 2016, the Ombudsman found that overcrowding at BWCC has worsened to the extent that it is the most overcrowded correctional centre in Queensland. The level of overcrowding at BWCC, when compared with men’s prisons and coupled with the inadequate living conditions for prisoners, creates the circumstances where the administration of BWCC is improperly discriminatory towards female prisoners.