Government announces prison system overhaul, new jail at Wollongong

Corrections minister David Elliot announced a raft of changes to the NSW prison system on Sunday, including providing more than 1,100 extra beds, almost half of which will come from new “modular” beds to be built at Cessnock.

South Coast Correctional Centre, at Nowra, will gain 160 beds, while a further 60 will be created under plans to resurrect a one-time periodic detention centre turned half-way house at Unanderra.

The centre was previously used as part of the government’s Community Offender Support Programs (COSPs), which gave parolees emergency housing immediately after leaving prison.

However, the site was closed in 2013 after a Corrective Services NSW review found the program was “costly and inefficient”.

Six of the eight centres closed, with only Campbelltown and Malabar remaining open.

The Unanderra site had been due to be sold, however a spokeswoman for Mr Elliott confirmed on Sunday that the government still owned the vacant building.

“The government announced today that the vacant building will be commissioned as a minimum-security prison for 60 inmates later this year,” the spokeswoman said.

“It will be a prison and will operate as such, not a halfway house, which is for offenders who have left prison.”

Meanwhile, the potential privatisation of prisons in the future was at the centre of Sunday’s announcement, with Mr Elliott revealing plans to “market test” the viability of such an idea at John Morony Correctional Centre.

Under the plans, Corrective Services NSW will be required to compete against private companies through a tender process to continue running the prison.

Mr Elliott said the proposed changes would help deliver a prison system that operates more efficiently and has a greater focus on rehabilitation.