One of New South Wales’s largest prisons will return to public hands as Labor continues to reverse what the union representing guards has dubbed “the failed prison for profit model”.
The Minns government announced on Sunday its contract with MTC Australia – a subsidiary of a controversial American private prison operator – to run Parklea correctional centre would end in October 2026.
The Sydney prison is the second of three privately run prisons in the state to begin a transition back to public hands, with the 16-month transition for Junee correctional centre to return to public hands to be finalised in April.
The Minns government has no plan to return NSW’s third and soon-to-be final privately run prison – Clarence correctional centre – to state hands due to the cost of exiting the current contract. Clarence is the largest prison in Australia with 1,700 beds.
In 2020, the then-Coalition government signed a 20-year contract with Serco, which operates the prison in Grafton.
“We’ve got a multi-decade government contract with Clarence, and as much as we want to ensure that taxpayers get value for money, ripping up that contract, I just couldn’t justify it,” the premier, Chris Minns, said on Sunday.
The state minister for corrections, Anoulack Chanthivong, said the move to transition Parklea and Junee was part of the Minns government’s election promise to reverse the privatisation of public assets.
“Unlike private management, Corrective Services NSW’s operating model is not based on a profit motive, it’s based on the objective to reduce reoffending following release from prison, which focuses on rehabilitation, education and safe reintegration into the community,” Chanthivong said.
Early last year, two inmates at Parklea – which was privatised in 2009 – died in a suspected suicide within two months. This led the Greens’ justice spokesperson, Sue Higginson, to say there could be more deaths at Parklea if there wasn’t urgent reform.
There is a ballooning prison population across NSW, which Minns said was due to his government’s changes to the Bail Act. The premier said on Sunday “there’s 1,000 extra inmates in NSW prisons since we were elected” and he was “unapologetic about that”.
The Minns government toughened bail laws for accused serious domestic violence offenders – reversing the presumption of bail – after the alleged murder of Molly Ticehurst. It has also made it tougher for some young people accused of certain crimes to get bail.
The number of people in prison has increased by 600 since Christmas, according to Stewart Little, the general secretary of the union for prison staff, the Public Service Association (PSA).
Leon Taylor, the acting commissioner for corrective services, said de-privatising Parklea was an important operational decision so the system could be modernised to accommodate “the record number of prisoners coming into custody”.
“Prisoners that we are required to look after are more unwell, more drug-affected, more violent and coming to us in record numbers,” he said on Sunday.
“There is pressure all across the criminal justice system due to the change in bail laws. Active policing is putting a lot of pressure on the front end of the system for us to house inmates, house them safely, put them before the courts, give them the health care and the services that they need.”
Little said the return of Junee and now Parklea to public hands showed NSW Labor was “listening to our voice” that “privatisation hurts everyone”.
“From the moment Parklea correctional centre was privatised in 2009, our union has campaigned for what is right: the return of the jail to the people of NSW and away from the failed prison for profit model that fails staff and taxpayers,” Little said.
“It’s good news for the taxpayer, who will no longer be propping up outsourcing giants such as MTC that operate to benefit overseas shareholders rather than the people of NSW.”
In 2023, when Labor announced it would de-privatise Junee correctional centre, a source with knowledge of the prison not authorised to speak publicly said: “The American model of prisons for profit – I don’t think that works well in Australia.”
They said that “actively working towards rehabilitation” of prisoners was “hard to do privately”.
In December, Guardian Australia revealed the Albanese government would end a longstanding deal with Serco and pay $2.3bn to Secure Journeys, a local subsidiary of MTC, to run Australia’s onshore immigration detention network.
Minns, said the decision to de-privatise Parklea was a win for workers “as we rebuild essential services for NSW”.
“Frontline staff who work at Parklea correctional centre today will have a job at Parklea – regardless of the changes,” Minns said.
MTC Australia said it was “disappointed” by the government’s decision. “MTC Australia is proud of the professional service our dedicated employees have provided to the men in our care,” a spokesperson said.
