Analysis: Corrective Services Minister Fran Logan must shoulder some blame for riot

When you put your foot on a hose pipe the pressure builds and builds.

In September 2017, the McGowan Government’s mandate for financial responsibility after years of ballooning debt was relayed to a conference of prison superintendents.

The days of overblown overtime bills for staff were over.

According to Corrective Services Minister Fran Logan and Commissioner Tony Hassall, one of those superintendents went too far in reducing his prison’s overtime budget.

Jail bosses warned before prison riot

He cut nearly $500,000 from the Greenough Regional Prison books and rarely requested top-up money to deal with overtime demands.

The jail went from being able to cover 40 overtime shifts a week to 28 shifts.

But the savings were at the expense of the inmates who were locked in their units, not offered the usual programs and who grew bored and agitated.

Known as being put into an “adaptive routine”, Greenough was not operating the sort of routine needed to keep the peace.

When there were not enough prison officers, vocational officers were used to plug security gaps rather than occupy the minds of the inmates.

Over a 226-day period, for example, the adaptive routine or lockdowns occurred at the prison on 216 days.

Add criminals feeling hard done by to budget constraints and confinement and you have a formula for disaster.

Once the crooks kicked-off, Greenough’s substandard security made it easy.

Regardless of whether or not the now-relocated superintendent has been made a scapegoat for the anarchy and mass breakout, the red flags about Greenough were undeniable.

WA’s Custodial Inspector Neil Morgan had been warning about overcrowding and conditions at Greenough for years.

Logan says he does not apologise for reining in spending, which means he has to cop some of the blame.