UK firm Serco to operate Adelaide Remand Centre

The company that will take over Adelaide Remand Centre has a “scandalous history of failure” a union claims — but the state government says a rigorous tender process was followed.

Adelaide Remand Centre. Picture Roger Wyman

An international company has won a $115 million SA government contract to operate and manage the Adelaide Remand Centre for seven years.

UK-based Serco Group announced the seven-year deal for its Australian subsidiary on its website.

Serco said it would begin to take control of the centre immediately and be fully in charge by August.

ARC is currently managed by SA’s Department for Correctional Services and accommodates up to 274 remand prisoners.

Serco said the centre will be upgraded under the contract to increase the total possible occupancy.

“The centre’s proximity to metropolitan courts allows ease of transfer for prisoner court appearances and the centre also has a video conferencing facility that allows prisoners to be directly linked electronically to the court,” it said in a statement.

The contract will see Serco “develop and implement a purpose-designed remand strategy” with a focus on safety and security, and manage and prepare prisoners for release or relocation.

Serco will partner with different organisations to support SA’s strategy of reducing offending by 10 per cent, including relapse prevention, court advocacy, treatment services and holistic family support.

“The contract expands what is traditionally undertaken in remand and focuses on providing a broad range of reintegration support services to all prisoners from the very start of the process,” Serco Group chief executive Rupert Soames said.

The Public Service Association of SA criticised the announcement, saying Serco had a “scandalous history of failure in operating private prisons in Australia and overseas”.

“The claim by the government that Serco will operate as a “centre of excellence” is a joke,” PSA general secretary Nev Kitchin said.

“The PSA maintains its opposition to prison privatisation because privatisation always leads to reduced safety through increased assaults, increased drug use, increased recidivism; fewer staff with less training.”

The PSA said Serco’s operation of the South Queensland Correctional Centre was the subject of scathing criticism from the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission.

“In New Zealand Serco lost their contract for the Mount Eden prison and were fined $8m following widespread evidence of understaffing and poor supervision and reports of extreme violence and neglect. In the UK Serco has been the subject of criminal and statutory inquiries.”

The SA Government said Serco was awarded the contract after a “rigorous tender process”.

Correctional Services Minister Corey Wingard said Serco had “extensive experience” managing correctional facilities in Australia, New Zealand and the UK and that privatisation could save taxpayers up to $6 million each year.

“This is going to allow more money to go back into health and education and potentially the prison system as well,” he said.

Mr Wingard said penalties and incentives would be built into Serco’s contract.

He also said “all (remand centre worker’s) jobs are guaranteed within the public corrections system within Adelaide”.

“Some staff have applied for voluntary redundancies while some others have been, or will be, transferred to other prisons,” he said.

Serco was also recently awarded a $1 billion Federal contract over four years to provide health services to the Australian Defence Force.

— with Elizabeth Henson