Tucked between a creek and a highway just outside Ipswich, in Queensland’s south-east, stands the first privately operated prison in Australia.
The Borallon correctional centre must have seemed futuristic for some inmates when it opened in 1990, given two of the state’s other prisons, in Brisbane and Townsville, were built more than a century earlier.
It was also seen as a brave new experiment in how states could manage their prisoners. But by 2018, the state’s Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) made clear what it thought of the experiment.
“This marketised approach, where prisons are operated by private, profit driven organisations, disconnects the state from direct responsibility for the delivery of privately operated prisons,” it found.
“This model creates challenges for the state in ensuring prisoners detained in privately operated facilities are treated humanely and have appropriate access to programs and services.”
Just as Queensland was the first jurisdiction in Australia to embrace private prisons, it could be leading a national charge away from them.
In 2019, the state’s Labor government announced it would return its two private prisons to public hands. Later that year, the Western Australian government said it would do the same with Melaleuca prison, which would leave only one private prison left in that state.
This year, New South Wales announced it would not renew the private contract for Junee prison, while Victoria took the less dramatic step of taking over healthcare from private operators in women’s prisons.
Queensland’s acting minister for corrections, Mark Furner, says state and territory governments have an obligation to look after their own prisoners.
“I am of the belief that the government has an inherent responsibility to ensure the safety and security of prison operations,” he says in a statement to Guardian Australia.
“The decision to transition all Queensland prisons to public operation was based on a conviction that the government delivering these critical services was the only way to ensure all correctional centres operated at the highest standards, whilst ensuring the safety of our officers on the front line.”
Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Western Australia are the only Australian jurisdictions with private prisons. By 2026, the number of private prisons could fall to seven – the lowest number in almost 30 years.
In NSW, the decision not to renew the Junee contract was viewed as giving the state increased transparency and accountability in how the prison was managed, as well as improved collaboration with other services, such as the health and court systems, that remain publicly run.
Furner says that when Arthur Gorrie and Southern Queensland correctional centres returned to public operation in 2020 and 2021, respectively, “workers on the ground immediately saw a difference, with more workers on the floor guarding the prisoners, and immediate back up available”.
One of the highest rates of private incarceration in the world
The Queensland decision to spend $111m to regain control of its private prisons was hardly unexpected in the wake of the CCC report.
But the NSW government’s decision to take back Junee left the private operator, GEO Group, dumbfounded.
“The decision has been met by staff and management with much disappointment and surprise given 30 years of successful operations by GEO,” it said in a statement last month.
“Even though staff are disappointed by this decision, and given the uncertainties and challenges brought about by transitioning to a new employer, GEO and its staff will work with the NSW government to ensure a smooth handover.”
The three private operators responsible for multiple prisons in Australia – GEO Group, G4S and Serco – either declined or did not respond to requests for comment.
Australia has one of the highest rates of prisoners held in private facilities in the world, according to Justice Map, a research and consultation project.
The majority of private prisons are managed by companies that have had a long association with the facility, are on long-term and lucrative contracts, or both.
Victoria has the most private prisons of any Australian jurisdiction: Port Phillip, Fulham and Ravenhall.
The Port Phillip prison has been operated by G4S since it opened in 1997, and the current contract, worth $1.8bn, does not expire until 2037.
Fulham and Ravenhall have both been operated by GEO since opening, and the US company holds contracts for their continuing operation that have more than a decade left to run.
These contracts were signed before the national shift away from private prisons, and before the state’s auditor general found that “serious incidents at both Port Phillip and Fulham have, in some instances, exposed weaknesses in how G4S and GEO manage safety and security risks”.
“Neither operator is investigating serious incidents using methods that effectively identify root causes,” the Victorian auditor general’s office (Vago) found in 2018.
Guardian Australia can reveal that an analysis of court and public records shows that, in the past year, the Victorian government paid damages to at least five prisoners or former prisoners who had taken legal action against the state and either GEO or G4S.
A spokesperson for the Victorian corrections minister, Enver Erdogan, did not answer specific questions regarding the contracts with private providers or the damages payments, including why the state remained liable for claims against private operators.
“The safety and wellbeing of our staff and people in custody is our highest priority,” they said.
“Corrections Victoria regularly reviews and updates our operational arrangement to ensure the needs of staff and people in custody are met.
“All private providers operate under strict performance and reporting guidelines to ensure that duty of care is upheld.”
The bottom line
The Victorian government is taking charge of primary health services at women’s prisons and, at the new youth detention facility Cherry Creek, provides improved oversight and tailored care to those in custody and when they’re released, particularly for Aboriginal women and children. But it has not indicated whether it believes broader change is necessary.
This could be because of a simple bottom-line equation. In the 2018 auditor general’s report that raised questions about how GEO and G4S investigated serious incidents, it was found they were good value for money.
According to Vago, the companies delivered “cost-efficient services for the state that have largely met the contracts’ service and performance requirements” and Port Phillip and Fulham cost up to 20% less to run than publicly operated prisons of the same security rating.
About 340km south of Borallon prison, shining futuristically, as it once did, is an enormous beacon to the private prisons experiment: the 1,700-bed Clarence correctional centre, near Grafton, which is the largest prison in Australia.
It was opened in 2020, and Serco has a two-decade contract which will reportedly require the government to pay them about $130m a year.
When justifying the decision to use a private operator, the-then NSW corrections minister, Anthony Roberts, said it “presents a level of competitive tension” and “Victoria and NSW certainly lead the way in ensuring that we have a very good balance between private and publicly run prisons”.
The experiment may have a little while longer to run.
