High comedy continues over the prison - Police hunt for leakers

proofpositive said :

The CT typically lacks the balls to do any real reporting.

Proofpositive, did you actually read the story before posting?

As the article says “ACT Corrections Minister John Hargreaves has called in ACT Policing to investigate an alleged leak to The Canberra Times regarding security at the territory’s new jail.”

Read between the lines dude. Harvgraves is trying to shut the story down, and scare the PS, because of the questions being asked.

“http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/police-called-in-on-act-jail-leak/1460875.aspx

what could be so secretive about the security system? other then they fked it up and lied about it to the community. Maybe it’s the combination to the minister for incompetence’s bike chain that will be used as a stopgap measure when they put the guests in.

Parklea was an ‘electronic cutting edge’ prison when it opened back in 80’s. It would need less staff and prevent escapes and all the other promises that only pre-elections can provide. Over time the whizz-bang security broke down and the place had its fair share of escapes. They eventually went back to relying on a combination of static (wire/walls/cameras etc) AND Dynamic (adequate staffing/case management/structured days etc) security. Lesson learned.

The problem in the ACT is that there is no corporate memory in this field. It’s going to be a very, very expensive learning curve.

ACT govt is always trying to be a groundbreaker – like the proposed touchscreens at busstops – what happened to those?

Not that I’m mourning their loss – it was a ridiculous idea to spend money on frills like that when they lack basics like enough busses.

They should totally just go with proven technoogy, and as simple as possible.

There’s the thing with whistleblowing. Usually only happens when there’s something wrong that needs exposure. No problems = no leaks.

What the hell is it about Canberra that things always have to be latest greatst unproven technology? Defence have project failure via this approach down to a fine art. Instead of learning from the local example, ACT Corrections go slavishly following it.

Here’re some tips: 1/ learn the difference between cutting edge and bleeding edge; 2/ buy crap off the shelf after someone else has had the fun of sorting out the wrinkles.

Perhaps a moat full of large crocs would be cheaper then what they are doing now?

Go the whistleblower. After all, technology is fallible and should be seen as such. I sincerely hope they are going with proper security backups, like daddy mentioned above (if they had those, the prison would be occupied already).

(And the obvious principle of the fallibility of technology goes double for the mooted toilet to tap water plant).

The CT typically lacks the balls to do any real reporting. this is not surprising given that they rely on the ACT government to keep them afloat with advertising revenue. IF you have a story you report it. IF there is a security problem the ACT government fixes it. The minister for alcoholic beverages and corrective services is looking for a scapegoat.

had an opportunity to be in Goulburn Max security as a visitor many years ago.

They had this security system of big steel doors, 3cm think bars and great big padlocks. All this watched over by big guys in uniforms and surrounded by really high walls with barbed wire on top.

Apparently none of the inmates ever wanted to go back in again … and everybody knew how the system worked

I’ve been unfortunate enough to be involved in a number of leak investigations held by the AFP. If this effort is anything like my experiance with the APS, there’ll be a report prepared for the Minister and chances are there’ll be no further action … because the finding will be that the leak came from within the Minsiters office or from within the office of a colleage.

Way to not address a core problem which is in the public interest, by hiding any investigation behind ‘not in the public interest to disclose’, Mr Hargreaves.

If anyone is offering odds, I will put a dollar on a single mid-level public servant eventually getting terminated after a quiet internal investigation, no process reviews or impact to any agency heads, and there will be no significant change to the security system because the ‘single instance of this disclosure did not harm the operation of the system’ or somesuch.

As caf says, this points to a classic case of “security through obscurity” which pretty much anyone who actually knows what they’re talking about will tell you is about the worst way to secure anything. Why? Because as this shows, sooner or later someone will either say something they shouldn’t, or else someone will simply discover it by themselves.

If only we had a decent opposition in this town, a government this incompetent would have been out on its ear long ago.

caf said :

Also John Hargreaves and Colonel Sanders – has anyone seen them in the same room at the same time?

Nooooo. That is completely wrong. The Colonel died years ago.

It’s Uncle Arthur you have confused him with.

I have never seen them in the same room at the same time, caf! I think you’re on to something ….

: D

That’s right John, allocate police resources to find someone who embarrasses the Govt, shoot the messenger, then lock them up in gaol; well, if we had one…

If the security of the system relies on the details of the system remaining secret, then it is a fragile security that would have been eventually broken anyway.

Also John Hargreaves and Colonel Sanders – has anyone seen them in the same room at the same time?