New operators for scandal-plagued Parklea jail

THE private sector operators of scandal-plagued Parklea jail look set to be dumped after a string of embarrassments for the government.

• Video shows inmate with knife and the drug ice in Parklea jail
• Governor to review security at Parklea Correction Centre

THE private sector operators of scandal-plagued Parklea jail look set to be dumped after a string of embarrassments for the government.

New managers are being called in after the institution — now operated by GEO Group Australia — was rocked by a string of scandals, including one in which an inmate used a smuggled phone to film himself behind bars brandishing a weapon and drugs.

Parklea Correctional Centre houses 893 long- and short-term prisoners as well as 80 minimum security inmates.

Parklea jail’s private operators are set to be axed.

Corrective Services officers search a cell in Parklea jail.

Documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph reveal the new operators must “maximise service outcomes, including monitoring and continuous improvement of performance”.

And they must also “deliver value for money through competition and innovation” and “increase accountability in the delivery of services”.

They will have control of prison accommodation, health services and transport to and from funerals, hospital and other “approved releases”.

Minister for Corrections David Elliot said the jail’s new private operators will also be expected to slash prisoner reoffending rates.

Minister for Corrective Services David Elliot with the Corrective Services Commisioner Peter Severin.

They will be contracted for seven years but may be granted an extra five if successful.

“We (expect them to) deliver value for money, modern and secure operations and help reduce the rate of reoffending,” Mr Elliot said.

The site has been administered by GEO Group Australia since 2009, with the contract due to expire in March 2019.

The prison has been rocked by a series of embarrassing scandals.

Mr Elliot said it was standard process to look for new operators 17 months before the previous contract was expired.

However, the move comes after career criminal Carl Walton, a former Bandido bikie, sent the state’s prison system into meltdown when he managed to video himself with a knife, “slasher” razor and what he said was a bag of the drug ice on a mobile phone inside Parklea Correctional Centre.

He posted the shocking footage to YouTube in June, just weeks after he was released on parole.

Last month a prison officer was stabbed twice at the facility with only a name tag preventing a potentially fatal wound to his chest.

In the YouTube clip, a knife could be seen.

Walton’s homemade video from inside.

In the wake of the embarrassing scandals, Mr Elliot implemented a major crackdown on contraband across all of the state’s 36 prisons.

Parklea and Junee prisons are NSW’s two privately run jails, but a new facility now under construction in Grafton, on the NSW north coast, will be run by a consortium comprising Serco, John Laing and John Holland.