THE NSW Government have announced a new operator for the Parklea Correctional Centre following a spate of incidents including suicide, assaults and drug use — which resulted in an ongoing parliamentary inquiry.
Corrections minister David Elliott announced US-based corrections company Management and Training Corporation (MTC) and Australian infrastructure solutions company Broadspectrum would undertake a joint venture to be the new operator of the controversial corrections facility.
However, the announcement of the contract for Parklea — a facility with well-documented issues — comes following a series of reports surrounding ‘uninhabitable conditions, violence, abuse and riots’ at MTC private prisons across the US.
Incidents included several riots at MTC prisons between 2003 and 2015.
The first reported riot occurred at a low-security prison in California where 150 prisoners attacked inmates with meat cleavers, knives and fire extinguishers, resulting in the ‘retreat’ of guards and the death of two inmates.
It is understood the facility was shut down two months later.
In 2015 an MTC run Texas correctional centre was brought to its knees when 2000 inmates rioted over issues surrounding poor medical care.
A report by the US Federal Bureau of Prisons identified the facility as uninhabitable with MTC firing all 400 staff at the facility, following the incident.
“MTC failed to properly oversee, manage, and repair the prison and turned a blind eye to the enormous problems that plagued the prison from its inception,” a lawsuit against the company, which was later dropped revealed. “MTC allowed the abysmal conditions to continue without taking any action of notifying the County of or attempting to rectify the problems with the prison.
“Further, MTC failed to address the issues of prison overcrowding.”
Three incidents occurred at the Arizona State Prison while it was under MTC management from 2010 to 2015.
The first incident on July 30, 2010, saw three prisoners convicted of homicide reportedly escape the facility and allegedly killing a couple, after MTC workers ignored alarms indicating a breach.
Another incident on January 19, 2015 saw a 23-year-old inmate dying in hospital after being sexually assaulted.
Over July 1, 2 and 4, 2015 there were reports of riots that resulted in the Arizona governor
Doug Ducey terminating MTC’s contract for the prison, after he was forced to bring in a 96 member special tactical unit to stop the riots.
The Australian-based Broadspectrum ‘solutions company’ has also had its share of controversy, including reports in March that it transported a young women from a Western Australian prison to a mental health facility naked, while she had menstrual bleeding.
Corrections Minister David Elliott said the two companies had signed a ‘strengthened contract’ after a 12 year ‘lesson’ since the current agreement was signed by the former Labor government.
“It will hold the new operator much more accountable for achieving best practice outcomes, including security, inmate safety and rehabilitation,” Mr Elliott said.
“The three short-listed companies were evaluated based on their ability to deliver quality outcomes for community safety and MTC/Broadspectrum provided the strongest option.
“Corrective Services NSW has developed a new contract that will improve the state’s ability to hold the operator accountable for achieving outcomes.”
Mr Elliott said he was confident the tough new contract will enable the NSW Government to “hold the operator to account for achieving best practice outcomes.”
It is understood the companies won the agreement following a lengthy tender evaluation process, conducted by the NSW Correctional Services since March this year.
Corrective Services NSW Commissioner Peter Severin said it was critical that there is as little interruption as possible to Parklea operations during this period of change.
“Corrective Services will work closely with the GEO Group to ensure a smooth transition to the new operator,” he said.
The companies will take over the operations of the facility on April 1, 2019, following a transitional recruitment period.
MTC and Broadspectrum were contacted for comment.
BEHIND BARS
$3.4 billion annual net cost of Australia’s prison system (2014)
196 prisoners per 100,000 people is the national imprisonment rate (2015)
Private prisons now manage 18.5 per cent of the Australian prison population (2014)
PRIVATE PRISONS IN AUSTRALIA
TRANSPARENCY is the biggest issue surrounding privately managed prisons in Australia.
A University of Sydney document, Prison Privatisation in Australia: The State of the Nation, revealed NSW was the second state in the nation to have privately managed prisons yet there was still little information known about their success.
Junee Correctional Centre near Wagga Wagga was the state’s first privately managed prison in 1993 followed by Parklea Prison in 2009.
“Not only do privately managed prisons vary greatly in terms of their accountability, costs, performance and efficiency, but also that it is very difficult to assess these criteria because of a general lack of transparency,” the University of Sydney document stated.
“NSW has prevented public access to private prison contracts under commercial-in-confidence rules.”
There have been two public discussions of prison privatisation in NSW since to lift the lid on the industry; 2005 and 2009.
Through the 2005 Public Accounts Committee inquiry, data shows an average cost of $91.75 per prisoner per day at Junee compared with $187.80 for the NSW prison system as a whole.
While the 2009 General Purpose Standing Committee inquiry revealed Junee cost $124.29 per person per day, compared to the system as a whole at $184.03.
“NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia have all experienced problems at private prisons that are directly attributed to cuts in staffing levels,” the university document stated.
“There must be more information about private prisons in the public sphere if a real debate on privatisation is to take place.”
PRISON HEARING CONTINUES
THE ANNOUNCEMENT of a new operator for Parklea Prison comes amid an ongoing parliamentary hearing into the controversial facility.
The hearing, which has already revealed the government was briefed 41 times in the last year regarding incidents of assault and the discovery of contraband, will continue next week.
The hearing also revealed 60 members of staff were disciplined for serious misconduct in 2017.
This follows the announcement of a major expansion of the facility last year, which included a new 150-bed facility opened in November 2017, increasing the prison’s capacity to more than 1000 inmates.
“This project will assist in delivering a prison system that accommodates more inmates to address the rising prison population and has a greater focus on inmate rehabilitation,” Corrections Minister David Elliott said at the time.
Parklea has been managed by GEO Australia on behalf of Corrective Services NSW since 2009.
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