Latest news with #GerardMaley
ABC News
3 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
NT government flags more private guards as bulging prison network grows to record numbers
The Northern Territory's corrections minister has refused to rule out using more private guards to help manage ballooning prisoner numbers. According to NT Department of Corrections data, 2,803 prisoners were being held across the NT's prison network as of Wednesday. The number is a record high after rising consistently for the past two decades, and marks a jump of 550 inmates since the Country Liberal Party (CLP) came to government in August. Speaking to Stateline NT, Deputy Chief Minister and Corrections Minister Gerard Maley said the influx had created a "challenging environment" for prison services. He said a $120 million funding injection into the system, allocated in the NT budget, would help to manage the load. "This is extra money that's going into the correctional system to make sure that officers are safe and to make sure prisoners are safe," Mr Maley said. The surge in prisoners has come as the CLP implements a range of tough-on-crime measures, including stricter bail laws and lowering the age of criminal responsibility, which have faced heavy criticism from a range of groups. As prisoner numbers have risen, staffing has not kept pace. An NT government recruitment drive has so far seen 138 new correctional guards employed inside prisons and in February private global security firm G4S was contracted to manage prisoner transfers in Darwin. The union representing correctional officers has raised concerns bringing in private prison guards could mark the start of "the privatisation of corrections" in the NT. "We are looking at trying to expand the workforce and we've got a rolling recruitment office, but it's just not enough because our system is growing," Mr Maley said. "There's a whole range of jobs outside the prison … which can be used for independent contractors." The deputy chief minister said privatising the whole NT prison network was not on the government's radar. "There are private firms that run prisons in their entirety, that's not our plan at all," he said. "Our plan is to make sure that we have highly trained officers behind the wire, and then independent contractors such as G4S doing the services outside that." In May, a long-standing correctional officer reportedly lost his eye after being assaulted by a prisoner in Darwin, and the union has blamed overcrowding for fuelling a volatile situation inside jails. But Mr Maley denies that the NT's recent surge in prisoner numbers, combined with a workforce shortage, has created a dangerous situation behind the wire. "The situation right now is a challenging environment because we've got a record number of people," Mr Maley said. "But this is about community safety and we need to make sure that people in the NT know that there's going to be a consequence for your action." Rolling lockdowns, triggered by workforce shortages, have also affected the delivery of rehabilitation programs — with some providers in Darwin waiting months to see prisoners to complete assessments for the courts. The trickle-down effect has left courts under pressure, with cases taking longer to be heard and remand times reaching record levels. "We've been in office for about nine months, what we inherited was a mess of the prison system and the court system in relation to a lack of infrastructure," Mr Maley said. "We're trying to keep the community safe, so we've got to get that balance right of rehabilitation and punishment and keeping the community safe." As part of the NT government's prison master plan, new prison work camps have been flagged for Katherine and at the Holtze facility in Darwin in 2026. By the end of 2025, a new youth justice boot camp and bail facility is also set to open in the Katherine area. Mr Maley said the government was working on addressing social issues in the territory to prevent people from entering the criminal justice system. "We know that education is an issue — I've been to the prisons and I've spoken with adult prisoners who don't even know the alphabet, they can't even count to 10 and they are middle-aged people," he said. "I've been into youth justice and young people are going to school and they are not used to that because wherever they have come from and [in] their community, they don't do that." Asked if these issues reflected failures of successive governments and if poverty was being punished, Mr Maley denied the government was entrenching disadvantage through its crime policies. "We're working hard to break that cycle, to be able to give these prisoners and young offenders a better opportunity at life as they move forward," he said.
ABC News
3 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Is privatisation causing problems in the NT justice system?
NT Corrections Minister Gerard Maley speaks about the roles being filled by private contractors, which do not include jobs inside the prison itself.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Plans to build prison work camp at farming college
A crime-troubled territory in dire need of more beds in jails is negotiating with a university to turn part of an agricultural college into a prison farm work camp. The Northern Territory government is in talks with Charles Darwin University to turn land at its rural college, 18km northwest of Katherine, into a prison farm for 100 low- to open-security inmates to be operating by the end of 2025. The prison farm plans come amid record spending of $1.5 billion for law and order announced in the NT budget on May 13, with a third of that for corrective services. The Country Liberal Party government in May rushed through tough new bail laws that will ramp up the demand for prison beds. Corrections Minister Gerard Maley has confirmed negotiations were ongoing with the university, with the proposed work camp being a key part of the government's "sentenced to skill" program for low security inmates. The university's Katherine rural campus spans more than 4400 hectares of working cattle and farming operations, the university's website says. Infrastructure funding was ready to get the proposed facility up and running and it would alleviate pressures on the system, Mr Maley told the NT News. University vice-chancellor Scott Bowman confirmed preliminary talks were underway with the NT corrections department about a parcel of land on the rural campus being made available for the building of a correctional facility. "Charles Darwin University is proud of the work we currently undertake with the Department of Corrections, delivering training in all Northern Territory correctional facilities," he said in a statement to AAP. "Our work so far has demonstrated that skills and education are key in rehabilitation." Acting Corrections Commissioner Alecia Brimson has acknowledged the strain put on the NT prison system by staff retention issues, with 40 per cent of the 157 correctional officers recruited in July quitting in less than 12 months. Data shows the NT has an incarceration rate three times greater than anywhere else in Australia and has the highest reoffending rate, with six out of 10 prisoners returning to jail within two years of release. A justice reform group says the NT government should stop investing in new prisons in response to overcrowding and instead look at proven community-led programs to address the root causes of crime to make communities safer. Justice Reform Initiative's NT co-ordinator and Noongar woman Rocket Bretherton said overcrowded and understaffed jails led to long lockdowns and pressure-cooker situations that endangered people in prison. "How is that rehabilitating people? How is that making the community safer, how is that setting people up to better their lives when they come out of prison? "If jailing people worked then the Northern Territory would be the safest place in the world, with the amount of people we have in jails. So obviously jailing is failing," she told AAP.
ABC News
06-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
NT prison work camp proposed for rural university research station near Katherine
The Northern Territory government is in negotiations with Charles Darwin University (CDU) to open a prison work camp at a research farm north of the town of Katherine. Corrections Minister Gerard Maley said if the negotiations are successful, the work camp could be open at the rural university location later this year. Mr Maley said the plan was for the facility to be used for rehabilitation programs. Gerard Maley says there's funding in the upcoming NT budget dedicated to getting the work camp up and running. ( ABC News: James Elton ) "Some of those boot camp and work camp prisoners will be able to go … learn some everyday skills that territorians have to make a better life," he said. The work camp was promised by the Country Liberal Party (CLP) prior to the 2024 NT election, but no location had been publicly identified until today. Photo shows Three men address the media. The NT government has revealed plans to permanently transfer children from Alice Springs youth detention to Darwin as part of an "emergency response" aimed at rolling out a thousand new prison beds over the next four years. Mr Maley said the government "had a proposal with CDU now about what that will look like". "To be able to house low and open restricted prisoners there, and offer that Sentenced to a Skill program, using the CDU research farm as a facility to offer that program," he said. When asked if Katherine residents had been consulted over the plan, Mr Maley said the plan "is going to be publicised, it has been out there in the community". The minister said there was money in the upcoming NT budget to "get that up and running". CDU Vice-Chancellor and President Scott Bowman said the university was "proud of the work we currently do with the Department of Corrections, delivering education and training in all Northern Territory facilities". "We have been approached about this possibility," he said. Record budget for prison operations The government also flagged a record $495 million spend on the NT's overloaded corrections system in its May 13 budget, most of which would be used for operational purposes. The territory continues to see record numbers of people being incarcerated, with Alecia Brimson says the attrition rate in the NT's corrections industry was still high. ( ABC News: Jayden O'Neill ) Acting Corrections Commissioner Alecia Brimson said the prison population was currently at 2,822. "There's no question that that number places strain on the organisation, right across all of our centres," she said. Mr Maley said the proposed new work camp would alleviate the strain "because we'd be able to spread the prison population not only in Holtze [prison] in Darwin and in Alice Springs, but into Katherine". In the past 12 months, the Northern Territory has recruited 157 correctional officers, however 59 have left. ( ABC News: Grace Atta ) Despite the workforce strain, Ms Brimson said they believed an ongoing recruitment push would allow them to properly staff the new work camp. However, she also said the attrition rate in the sector was huge: in the past 12 months, 157 correctional officers have been recruited but 59 have left — 30 of whom were from Alice Springs. Photo shows Group Around 50 prison officers have marched to parliament to protest against the NT government's plan to hire private contractors within its corrections system. United Workers Union NT secretary Erina Early said in a statement that a Katherine work camp would be welcomed by officers but that many "are in doubt how the work camp will be staffed". "Officers are being kept on the dark about their future employment and direction of corrections," she said. "Officers continue to put their lives at risk and are expected to work unsafe hours with significantly overcrowded facilities all for a Department who does not value them or respect [what] they are exposed to every day."
