Plans unveiled for new 200-bed prisoner work camp in Darwin

The NT government has announced design work for a new 200-bed Darwin work camp, a week after a similar plan was revealed for Katherine. Find out where.

Corrections Minister Gerard Maley tours the horticulture skill and training facility at Holtze, which is expected to form part of a new prison work camp slated for Darwin. Pic: Supplied.

Design and planning is underway for a new work camp in Darwin that will house 200 low security prisoners.

It is expected to complement the existing prison infrastructure at Holtze, with final designs due early next year.

The announcement comes the week after the Northern Territory government confirmed it would also convert Charles Darwin University’s Katherine rural campus into a 198-bed work camp.

Two low security facilities focused on prisoner skills training were announced last year as part of the Country Liberal government’s Corrections masterplan, however the exact locations had not been confirmed until now.

Corrections Minister Gerard Maley said it offered an important opportunity for prisoners to practice routine and reintegrate into the community, through jobs such as cleaning up pensioner’s yards or setting up the Royal Darwin Show.

Corrections Minister Gerard Maley tours the horticulture skill and training facility at Holtze, which is expected to form part of a new prison work camp slated for Darwin. Pic: Supplied.

“We know that if you just open the door and push these prisoners out in the street, they’re likely to reoffend. This is part of our strategy to break that cycle of reoffending,” Mr Maley said.

“The work camps give them structure, it gives an opportunity to build relationships with people out there who may offer them a job in the future.”

Mr Maley said with more Corrections recruitment and infrastructure in the pipeline there was opportunity to implement rehabilitation programs previously unavailable to those kept in overflowing or understaffed facilities.

The interim Darwin Women’s Prison is on track for completion in mid-December with prisoners being transitioned to the facility from early next year.

The 88-bed facility will have medical and educational areas, with an additional modular education building due to be completed on site in March 2026.

In Alice Springs, the former youth detention centre is being transformed into a women’s facility and is expected to start accepting female prisoners by mid-to-late February, with an 85-bed capacity.

Work is ongoing on the Paperbark Intake and Transfer Facility, which will accommodate up to eight youth on remand and is also on track to be completed in March.

Paperbark will have a total of 24 beds, 16 of which will make up the Youth Boot Camp and Bail Support Facility.

“Sometimes the courts are reluctant to give people bail because they’ve got nowhere to go,” Mr Maley said.

“So that facility allows these young offenders to go into Paperbark on bail, and once they’re there, they have an opportunity to have those supports wrapped around them.”

The correctional officer workforce stands at 790, up from 681 the same time last year. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The masterplan has delivered an extra 646 beds at the Berrimah Correctional Centre and 96 in Alice Springs this year, taking total capacity in NT prisons to 3032.

Staff numbers have also been bolstered – the correctional officer workforce stands at 790, up from 681 the same time last year.

The poor conditions for prisoners kept in police watch houses has been under recent scrutiny, and the NT News this week revealed the CLP government blocked international human rights inspectors from accessing Territory prisons.

Mr Maley defended the move, saying “there’s already oversight here” and it could pose “a safety issue” to allow United Nations delegates in.

“We are working hard to make sure that we get the prison up to scratch, and I genuinely believe it has,” he said.

“We’ve come into office 15 months ago, and things have got a lot better.

“Our plan is not to reuse those watch houses … we’re working really hard to make sure that we can give prisoners a bed in a prison, which gives them access to these in-prison industries and the wraparound services they need.”

Originally published as Plans unveiled for new 200-bed prisoner work camp in Darwin