Loading The department is now turning offices into prison cells and bringing in dongas to find the extra beds it needs for an exploding prison population. And what happens when prisoners go into lock-down because the government hasn't allocated the money to pay enough prison guards to watch them, which was found to be a contributing factor in the Greenough incident? Greenough will dog the government as more is revealed about how the riot and breakout were handled. Meanwhile, the state's prison system will be a tinder box as staffing issues continue to fester. The report found intelligence briefings stopped coming from Geenough in the two months leading up to the riot, possibly because of "a belief the reports would not be acted on, the absence of an Assistant Superintendent Security, reduced time for staff to interact with prisoners, or other reasons".

Loading In short, the government didn't have the staff to properly monitor or understand what the inmates in Geenough. But the staffing issues don't end there. Under questioning by a parliamentary committee in September, Mr Hassall said eight of the 22 positions in the department's internal investigations unit were vacant. "We have some of those positions covered," he said.

"We have two secondments starting from police on Monday. We are working to fill those positions." On top of that the prisons system has been hammered by a litany of damning CCC reports. Then last Sunday night, a prisoner set his bed on fire. It's almost a small fry these days. There was no structural damage and no injuries reported, according to the department, but another prisoner climbed over the roof in an attempt to get into an adjoining yard to look for cigarette butts. A department spokeswoman said the incident was minor and there were no protests or attempts to escape.

That may be true, but all these incidents, large and small, add up. Then comes the question, who is responsible? Last week, in the wake of the Greenough Riot report, the government told two different stories. On one hand Prisons Minister Fran Logan said he took full responsibility for the riot and breakout. But in State Parliament, Premier Mark McGowan had a different point of view.

"At the time of the breakout we had been in office for fewer than 18 months and we know that the reason for the breakout was largely that the former government put the women's prison right there with a men's prison," he said. "When the former government did that, it created a powder keg." These days, the battle over state government tends to be more a contest of managerial compentence. People aren't interested in excuses. And as the McGowan Government begins preparations for its third budget, it should be aware that the "blame it on Barnett" default excuse for any kind of incompetence or bad news is starting to wear pretty thin.

Will they have the audacity to run that line in the lead up to the next election? If there's debt still on the books or bad decisions, then sooner or later all of it will come to rest at the feet of the Premier. Then it will all be about what he's doing to fix the problems he's inherited. And that includes those plaguing the state's prisons.