Parklea correctional centre to return to public hands as NSW reverses ‘failed prison for profit model'

The Guardian

02-03-2025

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.
Guardian Australia understands 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.
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In 2020, the then Coalition government signed a 20-year contract with Serco, which operates the prison in Grafton.
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, the 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.
'By bringing Junee and Parklea correctional centres back into public hands, we're delivering better value for NSW taxpayers and improving outcomes for workers, inmates and the community.'
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.
The union for prison staff, the Public Service Association (PSA), 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,' the PSA general secretary, Stewart 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.'
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In 2023, when Labor announced it would de-privatise Junee correctional centre, a source with knowledge of the prison and 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 a local subsidiary of MTC, Secure Journeys, to run Australia's onshore immigration detention network.
The NSW premier, Chris 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 was contacted for comment.