Issue #1431      14 October 2009

Parklea Prison privatisation

Wrong in principle, wrong in practice

Sylvia Hale, NSW Greens spokesperson on corrective services, has condemned the awarding of the Parklea Prison contract to the GEO Group and questioned forecasts by Corrective Services Minister John Robertson that it would lead to $60 million in savings.

“The privatisation of prisons is wrong in principle. The awarding of the Parklea prison contract to GEO is equally wrong in practice,” Ms Hale said.

She said that the state consigns people to prison and it is the state that should be directly and constantly accountable for how prisoners are treated. “Rather than being siphoned off into the coffers of a private company motivated solely by the desire to make a profit, any surplus should be fed back into the prison system to promote the rehabilitation of prisoners.”

Parklea is an old jail. The Greens say the only way GEO will generate profits there will be by prison officers either losing their jobs or working fewer hours and by a reduction in services for prisoners.

“It is shameful that a former secretary of Unions NSW should actively promote a company such as GEO whose practice is to casualise its staff. John Robertson knows that this is a sure-fire way to erode working conditions and undermine unions.”

She said it was equally shameful that the contract should have gone to GEO which is part of a worldwide corrections group that includes G4S and Wackenhut, companies whose record around Australia and around the world is deplorable. Only last week G4S was criticised by the Perth Deaths in Custody Watch Committee over the death of prominent aboriginal elder, Mr Ward.

“It is extraordinary that the state government is employing a company that in the case of Mr Ward has been criticised by the Western Australian coroner for operating a van that was not fit for humans.”

Ms Hale also called on the Minister to implement the recommendations of the Legislative Council inquiry into the privatisation of prisons and prison related services.

“At the very least the private operation of Parklea must be fully accountable to the public, and must offer no lesser standards of operation than publicly operated prisons,” said Ms Hale.

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