Should prisons be privatised?
Just yesterday, the NSW Minister for Corrections, David Elliott announced that the Government would be putting out a tender for the operation of the John Morony Correctional Centre in Windsor.
On top of this, other prisons that fail to reach performance targets or fail cut reoffending rates will also be put to tender. This means the public and private sectors will compete for prison contracts.
A recent report has found that NSW prisons are operating at 112% occupancy, the result of a 12% increase in prisoner numbers – the highest across all states.
The government says the move is a sort of “market testing”. But does it mean that our prison system will effectively be privatised? And if so, how will this impact on how our prisons are run?
Peter Norden is the Adjunct Professor at RMIT and previously worked as a Chaplain at Pentridge Prison in Victoria. He joined presenter Sam Baran to talk about these changes to NSW prisons.
Sam started by asking what chance does the public sector have of winning the tender?
Producer: Nicole Ng
