A West Australian government review into a prison riot in the state's far north has failed to address allegations of sexual assault against female inmates and injuries suffered by prison officers.
Fourteen male inmates were involved in the five-hour riot at West Kimberley Regional Prison in July last year.
Twelve of the 14 men broke out of their unit and some forced entry into the area where female prisoners were housed, with one man in possession a kitchen knife.
The West Kimberley Regional Prison is based on the outskirts of Derby in Western Australia's north. (Supplied: Department of Justice)
The Department of Justice has since commissioned an internal After Action Review to assess the prison's preparedness and response to the incident.
But the report, a copy of which has been obtained by the ABC, fails to address both alleged sexual assaults against female prisoners raised in state parliament, and concerns over officer injuries flagged by the Prison Officers' Union.
The report detailed 16 recommendations which revolve around the prison's infrastructure, inter-agency response and staffing levels.
The sexual assault allegations were directly acknowledged during Budget Estimates Hearings in May.
Former Corrective Services minister Paul Papalia confirmed female prisoners were "undoubtedly" more at risk during the incident, while Corrective Services Commissioner Bradley Royce said he was "aware of incidents" referred to WA Police.
WA Police confirmed they investigated an alleged indecent assault, but would not confirm the outcome of that investigation.
Public confidence collapsed
Shadow Corrective Services Minister Adam Hort said the failure of the report to address the sexual assault reports and officer injuries was "extraordinary".
"The purpose of an After Action Review is to expose every failure, establish what went wrong and ensure it cannot happen again," he said.
"Not to omit or sanitise the most serious aspects of an incident.
"Few failures of duty could be more serious than male prisoners gaining access to a women's unit."
Corrective Services Shadow Minister Adam Hort said allegations of sexual assault should have been addressed in the After Action Review. (ABC News: Mya Kordic)
Mr Hort said public confidence in the prison system had "collapsed" and allegations of "this gravity" should not be "minimised or excluded from official reviews".
"Freedom of Information documents and answers obtained in parliament indicate an allegation of a sexual nature was made and investigated by police," he said.
"While it remains an allegation, the government must provide complete transparency about what occurred."
'Hollow promises'
WA Prison Officer Union secretary Andy Smith said he was not surprised to see injuries go unaddressed.
WA Prison Officers' Union secretary Andy Smith labelled the Department of Justice as 'horrendous' employers. ( ABC News: Keane Bourke )
"We see too much of this … it does worry us immensely when it's at a regional prison," he said.
"The stress regional prison officers are under constantly is massive, they are serious injuries and need to be treated as such."
He accused the Department of Justice of being "horrendous" employers and said the treatment of prison officers had not been taken seriously for years.
"We just see the department making hollow promises all the time,"
Mr Smith said.
"All we are seeing is all the problems we've got in our prison system being exacerbated and extended in time and in magnitude.
"The department saying 'we are doing our best' but we don't see any evidence of it."
An internal operational document
In a statement, a Department of Justice spokesperson said any alleged offences were referred to WA Police and maintained no prison staff were injured.
"The review … is an internal operational document focused on preparedness, emergency response, infrastructure and staffing," they said.
"The review identified a number of opportunities to further strengthen workforce capability, including local recruitment, regional incentives, short-term secondments and consideration of workforce models.
"Since September 2025, additional prison officers from metropolitan prisons have been deployed to WKRP on temporary secondments to support local operations."
The department said infrastructure upgrades were progressing, following recommendations from the review.
Tender documents show the build of a nearly $4.5 million fence is underway at the prison.
The poor conditions at West Kimberley Regional Prison have been in the spotlight for more than a decade, with the prison watchdog's most-recent report deeming it "unfit for purpose" and "entirely unsuitable".
When the facility opened in 2012, it was designed to house 120 male and 30 female prisoners — but as of October 2025 there were 223 prisoners being held at the facility.
