Record prisoner numbers pushing our jails to breaking point

WITHIN the government the prison overcrowding problem is being put down to a “perfect storm” of factors, says Andrew Clennell.

Within government the overcrowding problem is being put down to a “perfect storm” of factors.

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THE crisis over prison overcrowding is set to reach an internal political crescendo for the Baird government this Thursday, with Prisons Minister David Elliott and Planning Minister Rob Stokes expected to do battle in state cabinet over the reopening of Parra­matta jail.

Elliott — who often laments he is “four jails short” courtesy of the government of Barry O’Farrell — is representing his department in calling for the reopening of the jail as he grapples with how to cope with a record 12,300 NSW prisoners.

Stokes is backing his agency Urban Growth when it says that to reopen the jail would scare off plans for 3000 apartments in North Parramatta, plus an expansion of the Westmead health district, plus affect the Parramatta light rail project.

Prisons Minister David Elliott.

Given Stokes’s closeness to Premier Mike Baird, and the importance of Western Sydney to the government and the state at the moment, the Planning Minister seems in front heading into the stoush.

The plan to reopen Parramatta jail would accommodate only about 300 prisoners but times are tough given the new privately operated Grafton jail promised in last year’s budget, to house another 1700, is not due for completion until 2019.

Elliott is expected to argue a ­reopening of Parramatta jail would be temporary but Stokes would be expected to argue the minister could not guarantee that given the number of people incarcerated in this state continues to grow.

If this issue did not involve prisoners, it would be a serious crisis for the government — and the biggest sign of years of mismanagement under a Coalition government. The fact people do not really care prisoners are three to a cell and belting each other helps it not blow out into a political or potential electoral issue.

But people might begin to care if prison riots and other troubles continue.

The engraving of the forehead of a man allegedly carried out by a young extremist cellmate has become an iconic and disturbing image of the problem.

Then there was the period around Christmas when police were forced to keep prisoners in their holding cells and run out and get them meals from McDonald’s.

Bizarrely, in terms of trouble in prisons, the overcrowding issue appears to be more troublesome than the prison smoking ban. Some say the fact the smoking ban failed to blow up is a tribute to Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin. But Severin was also on watch while O’Farrell and his left-wing ­attorney-general put in soft bail laws and shut down the prisons — only for Mike Baird to put in tougher bail laws than we had in the first place after a community backlash.

Last week The Daily Telegraph revealed an internal Corrective Services working document that showed the government would cram an extra 742 prisoners into ­already overcrowded jails in two months, with suggestions that, if the pressure worsened, mattresses on floors and dormitory-style accommodation could be an option.

Within government the overcrowding problem is being put down to a “perfect storm” of factors — the tougher bail laws, the closure of ­Parramatta, Berrima, Kirkconnell and most of Grafton prisons post 2011-election in a bid to save money, a higher arrest rate achieved by police partly as a result of improved DNA technology, and the arrest of terror suspects, who magistrates are reluctant to give bail to.

Long term, Elliott has a plan — the closure and sale of ageing Long Bay Jail to reap a profit — and the establishment of a big prison in southwestern Sydney on the outskirts of the city. And contracts will be put out for tender for the new Grafton facility within six weeks as Elliott looks to get that project moving. None of it can come soon enough.