The new minimum-security jail at Unanderra will primarily cater for young adult offenders as a way of “breaking the criminal cycle”, the union representing prison workers has revealed.
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The Public Service Association (PSA) says the jail’s focus on rehabilitation would be a “valuable addition” for Corrective Services NSW.
“The whole system’s in need of a facility that responds to the types of programs they are proposing to put into that centre,” Steve McMahon, from the PSA’s prison officers branch, said of the Unanderra facility.
“It will be a minimum-security program with particular emphasis on young offenders and aimed at indigenous young offenders primarily.
“It certainly will serve a very vital and important role in rehabilitation and breaking the criminal cycle of some vulnerable youths.”
The NSW government revealed last month a defunct halfway house in the heart of Unanderra’s industrial area would be recommissioned as a minimum-security prison by September.
A site on on Lady Penrhyn Drive, once home to a Wollongong Community Offender Support Program centre, has been earmarked for the new jail.
A Corrective Services spokeswoman confirmed the Unanderra prison would “give priority to adult offenders who are aged under-25, are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background and have received short-term sentences”.
“The facility will have a focus on treatment and intervention programs to address inmates’ offending behaviour and reduce their risk of re-offending,” she said.
“Work, education and vocational training opportunities will help offenders prepare for successful reintegration into the community.”
The Unanderra prison announcement was made by Corrections Minister David Elliott on March 20, as part of a raft of NSW prison system changes aimed at tackling an exploding inmate population.
Mr McMahon described the statewide overhaul as “pseudo reforms” that “do absolutely nothing to address the overcrowding problem”.
The prison reforms also include market testing the viability of potential privatisation of prisons in the future.
“For the government to embark on this [market testing] process, it’s just not warranted and I put it down as a slap in the face and a kick in the guts to every prison officer in this state,” he said.
