NSW Premier Chris Minns announces return of | Australian Markets

One of Australia’s largest and most controversial prisons is returning to public possession.

NSW Premier Chris Minns confirmed on Sunday his authorities would assume control of the Parklea Correctional Centre in northwestern Sydney, marking an finish to a 15 12 months experiment in personal management of the jail and making it the second facility to shift from personal to public arms after Corrective Providers NSW took over the Junee centre in April this 12 months.

Mr Minns, talking at a press convention alongside Corrections Minister Anoulack Chanthivong, stated the federal government ought to present “fundamental, frontline, basic services” reminiscent of rehabilitation within the prison justice system.

“The truth of the matter is, a Labor government was responsible for outsourcing the management for Parklea jail, and it was a mistake,” he stated.

“We need to be in a position where we are providing good, rehabilitative services for people in NSW who fall foul of the law.

“And the public has to have confidence that if someone is arrested and goes through the criminal justice system, they will be securely in confinement, keeping the community safe.

“We believe the best way of doing that, is to ensure we are providing public correctional services in NSW.”

The transfer to take control of Parklea kinds one other hyperlink within the authorities’s rollback of privatised providers within the state, which Mr Minns stated would benefit taxpayers over the long-term.

“We’ve had a strong line against privatisation since we were elected two years ago and we’ve done it based on evidence,” he stated.

“Not based on feelings or ideology, but based on facts. We looked at the amount of money motorists had to pay based on privatised motorways, the amount of money people had to pay in electricity, because of privatised energy companies … we don’t want to nationalise individual services that are in the private economy, but when it comes to fundamental, frontline, basic services, they need to be provided by NSW government employees.

“It is the best way of ensuring taxpayers get value for money.”

The federal government will take control of the 1500-bed jail in October 2026, Mr Minns stated, following the top of MTC Australia’s contract in 2026.

US -based MTC took control of the jail in 2019 with a $1.3bn contract to run it for seven years.

Mr Chanthivong stated the jail’s 300 jobs could be preserved within the handover and public control would ship worth to taxpayers, security guards and prisoners.

“By bringing in Parklea back into public lands, it means the highest focus is not on the highest profit to shareholders, but the greatest value to the taxpayers of NSW,” he stated.

“Being part of an integrated network of 31 other facilities means our officers and our inmates will have access to the whole suite of government services.

“Education, training, skills and the great work of justice health to ensure our focus is on rehabilitation, reducing reoffending and keeping our communities safe.”

Impartial investigations into Parklea’s management have uncovered allegedly insufficient inmate care and inmate-on-inmate violence.

Mr Minns stated issues across the facility’s management had partly propelled the change.

“We’ve been looking at it for a while,” he stated.

“We’ve seen parliamentary inquiries and independent analysis of the management of Parklea over a number of years, realising that what looks to be on the sticker price like a lower figure paid by taxpayers, it the long run you end up paying a lot more.”

He stated the initial value of possession could be “about the same”, however taxpayers would seemingly take pleasure in decrease prices over the long-term.