His pledge to do more came as Queensland’s high-security prisons edged up toward 125 per cent occupancy and aviolent bikie brawl at the state’s largest facility sparked a call for action.
Mr Martin said keeping rival gangs separated was a problem at some centres,but denied gang-based melees represented a failure of the systems in place.
Across Queensland,dozens of prisoners are assaulted every month,many of them serious enough to need overnight hospitalisation,while more than 10 prison officers were seriously bashed on the job last year.
Having visited every correctional centre in Queensland,from fenceless low-security facilities,where prisoners live together almost as they would on the outside,through to centres housing the most hardened criminals,Mr Martin said the prison population was “large and under great pressure”.
“My number one priority is officer safety,no doubt about that,” he said.
“But my number one challenge... is to address the capacity issues within the prison system and that’s a very significant focus for me at the present time.
"I’m working very productively with all of the other elements of the criminal justice system,the police and the courts.”