Victorian bureaucrat reveals $1bn newly built prison sitting empty

A royal commission has been told one of Victoria’s newest prisons is empty despite costing more than $1bn.

Corrections Victoria Commissioner Larissa Strong.

A newly built $1bn prison in Victoria is not operating because Corrections does not have money to run it, the department's chief says.

Corrections Victoria Commissioner Larissa Strong told the ­Yoorrook justice commission – a royal commission examining historical injustices committed against Aboriginal people – that the Western Plains Correctional centre in Lara on the surf coast “is not operating” despite construction of the 1248-bed facility finishing five months ago.

“That prison has been built but it is not operating,” Ms Strong told the inquiry.

“We don’t have money to ­operate that prison because our demand has dropped so we don’t need to use those beds,”

“(The) prison was handed over to Corrections to maintain its integrity towards the end of last year.”

She later said: “It does not have operational funding to take any men into it.”

Asked by counsel assisting the commission, Tony McAvoy, if they had a problem with people breaking in, Ms Strong said “No”.

“But … you do want to know someone hasn’t broken into it and built a tunnel should you ever want to use it into the future,” she said.

Responding to a question about how much it cost to maintain the idle prison, Ms Strong said she believed the department received about $36m.

“It’s a very large footprint,” she said.

“It has a number of security features.

“We need someone to be able to respond to alarms such as fire alarms, to make sure even things like showers and the water membrane doesn’t crack.

“We do need a small staffing contingent so that that facility is maintained,” Ms Strong said.

The Department of Justice and Community Safety Victoria was contacted for comment.

According to its website, the new correctional centre – which Ms Strong said was built in response to a surge in the prison population about five years ago – was delivered “ahead of time and under budget” at $1.119bn.

Construction started in February 2020 and finished in November last year.

“The site has now been handed over from (the Community Safety Building Authority) to Corrections Victoria to maintain and secure,” it read.

Ms Strong said the prison was built on Wadawurrung country when asked by Yoorrook Commissioner Travis Lovett.

“Does it strike you as concerning that $1bn (has been) spent on a prison that is sitting idle?” he asked.

“It seems unfathomable to me that so much money has been spent on that facility with next to no outcomes or limited outcomes … while our Aboriginal organisations are fighting for scraps.

“It’s a lot of money,” Mr ­Lovett said.

“Imagine what $1bn could do for the Wadawurrung as the traditional owner group.”

Ms Strong responded yes but said “it would be more concerning to open the prison if you didn’t need those beds”.

She agreed with a statement made by Commissioner Maggie Walter that the plans to build the prison had coincided with what were controversial changes to the state’s bail laws in 2018 that restricted eligibility for bail and had drove up numbers in the prison population.

The state’s Attorney-General, Jacyln Symes, revealed in March that she would be winding back those laws, partly because of their disproportionate effect on the ­remand rates of Indigenous people.