An independent watchdog

The government has agreed to investigate establishing an independent watchdog for our prison system. This can only be a good move. Existing avenues of complaint are ineffective and viewed as biased - and not without justification. Like the Police, the Department of Corrections is effectively its own judge and jury, and seems unsympathetic to complaints by prisoners; last year it was criticised by the Chief Ombudsman for being uninterested in investigating allegations of serious assaults by its staff. Absent a significant cultural change in the department (hardly likely, given their refusal to discipline management over the BMR or "goon squad" abuses), the only way confidence can be restored is to turn investigation of complaints over to an independent body.