An experimental jail system without cells will be rolled out across some of NSW’s hardest prisons

There is a cafe, computer and chess classes and strangely, for a maximum security prison, no cells. And it has worked so successfully at Macquarie Correctional Centre it will now be expanded across the state.

A maximum security jail where inmates can buy milkshakes, join a choir and sleep in a dorm with 24 other prisoners has been so successful the trailblazing model will be rolled out across the state.

The prisoners, including murderers, terrorists, other violent offenders and drug dealers, are allowed to work in the jail’s cafe, attend art classes, gym sessions and even Toastmasters classes and join rock bands – provided they follow the rules.

The Saturday Telegraph can exclusively reveal the “pro-social” model, born six years ago at Macquarie Correctional Centre and based around showing “dignity and respect” to the 400 maximum security prisoners, will be rolled out at the Metropolitan Special Programs Centre at Long Bay next year.

One prisoner, who cannot be identified, said Macquarie Correctional Centre l in the state’s central west had saved his life.

“It’s a different way of doing jail, it has to do with the future of jails. If I can’t manage myself here I’m gonna f--k up outside.”

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The man behind the model is seasoned corrections officer Brad Peebles, who has 30 years experience, and admits he was indoctrinated into the belief “that people in prison are crims so you give them nothing, throw away the key”.

“I believed that for a number of years,” he said.

Six years ago he was working at a very traditional jail while the Macquarie Centre was being built next door and he remembers “thinking ‘Thank Christ it’s not me’” who would run the jail because “’It’s gonna burn to the ground.’

The dormitory-style accommodation inside Macquarie Correctional Centre. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“I just couldn’t get it through my head that you could manage 400 maximum security male inmates in an environment where you can’t lock them up.

“Where there is no recourse to punitive methods of management. For various reasons I was placed here to open the place at the time and I thought ‘This is a career killer’.”

The brainchild of Corrective Services Commissioner Kevin Corocan, then the assistant commissioner, Mr Peebles put his faith in his superior and with his “good team” of managers and “little bit of belief”, he got to work.

A prisoner prefers food at the Macquarie prison Grills and Gates cafe.

Menu at the Grills & Gates cafe.

“There was no play book. What we came up with is the idea of installing a really high level of privilege and humanity and a high level of expectation of what was required in terms of behaviour and application of work,” Mr Peebles said.

“As each truckload of inmates came we sat them down and said this is going to be different, you’re at a crossroads, you have a choice.”

Over the six years, the prisoners have developed a sense of community.

An inmate in the workshop at Macquarie Correctional Centre. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

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“We’ve had guys that have lived thug life their whole life who find they have a skill in video editing. It changes everything, their sense of self identity,” Peebles said.

“They hate themselves most of the time to start with but this becomes organic and takes on a life of its own.”

Mr Peebles concedes it would be hard for the general population to comprehend allowing maximum security prisoners to have access to weights in a gym – a testosterone pumping hot spot for raised tempers with the potential to spill into violence at any given moment.

“Yes, a gym can have that ticking time bomb feel about it. But here most of the equipment the boys have paid for themselves through various fundraising activities we do. It’s their equipment, they have a stake in it and how it’s used and looked after.

“People have to remember, they are not rewarded, they are required to maintain their privileges by behaving.

An inmate shows some computer designs for a metal sculpture he is building. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“It’s not a holiday camp, they are out of bed at 6am back at 6pm. No one gets a free ride, everyone works and is involved in programs, charity stuff, they have a sense of community.”

If things did turn ugly, Mr Peebles says the highly trained security team have the capability to restore order and state of the art technology means no black eye would ever go unnoticed.

“There are never foolish amounts of freedom that we don’t control,” he said.

“We have an effective security team with very effective security tools, our security system is the best in the western world and we don’t hide that.”

As to the benefits of locking 25 people into a pod to sleep at night, Mr Peebles said the men have formed their own communities, a family if you like to look after and support each other.

Prisoners play racquet ball in the experimental prison. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“There’s a level of choice too where they go. You can’t be a tough gangster and bash someone because you’ve got to sleep in there,” he said.

“We are normalising things and expecting a positive social environment.”

To detractors, he said “the proof is in the pudding” with resistance coming from a lack of understanding and indoctrinated culture.

“If they come to Macquarie and see for themselves they will come on board,” he said.

“I bought into the old culture. I was part of it and I am someone that’s genuinely changed,” he said.

Trust is at the centre of rules at Macquarie. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“People who buy into this have done it the hard way and value it as a better way of doing things.”

The costs associated with running Macquarie are well within national average for a maximum security jail.

“But the outcomes we are getting here are extraordinary,” Mr Peebles said.

A Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman said Macquarie Correctional Centre was the safest maximum-security prison for staff in the state.

“The average rate of assaults on staff is dramatically lower than that of the state’s other maximum-security prisons,” she said.

“In four of the past six years, Macquarie Correctional Centre recorded no inmate on staff assaults.

“Macquarie officers use force on inmates at a significantly lower rate than at other maximum-security prisons. Rates of misconduct among inmates are higher at other maximum-security prisons, compared to the rate at Macquarie.”

Mr Peebles has been tasked with rolling out Macquarie’s pro-social model to the other sites by 2024 as part of his Centres of Excellence project.

He believes the model could work in 80 per cent of centres but acknowledges not all people who commit crimes want to or have the ability to be ­rehabilitated.

“The remaining 20 per cent you’re always going to have inmates that refuse, are genuinely evil, very very few of them but they do exist,” he said.

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Originally published as An experimental jail system without cells will be rolled out across some of NSW’s hardest prisons