Security will be beefed up and classrooms added to a defunct halfway house in the heart of Unanderra’s industrial area ahead of its opening as a minimum-security prison within six months.
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A site, once home to a Wollongong Community Offender Support Program (COSP) centre, on Lady Penrhyn Drive has been earmarked for the new jail.
Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) confirmed on Monday the vacant centre was expected to begin operating as a prison by September.
“The Unanderra site is an existing facility which CSNSW hasn’t been using. It requires minimum refurbishment and compliance work, including additional security and classrooms,” a spokeswoman said.
Corrections Minister David Elliott revealed the Wollongong jail plan on Sunday, as part of a raft of NSW prison system changes aimed at tackling an exploding inmate population.
Wollongong MP Noreen Hay has condemned the idea, saying she “begged and pleaded” to keep the COSP centre, which gave parolees emergency short-term housing upon their release from prison, open because “it was doing a good job”.
The site closed in 2013 after a review of the program’s effectiveness.
“They [the government] insisted on closing that on the basis of cost efficiencies … now they say they’re going to open it as a 60-place prison,” Ms Hay said.
I’m not so sure the residents in Unanderra have been consulted and are quite ready for a 60-inmate prison
- Noreen Hay
“If they were talking about building a new prison then I would be supportive … but they’re talking about using what was a halfway house for 60 inmates without, what I can see, any consultation with the community.
“I’m not so sure the residents in Unanderra have been consulted and are quite ready for a 60-inmate prison.”
Parliamentary secretary for the Illawarra, and Liberal Kiama MP, Gareth Ward said the prison would bring more public service jobs to the region.
“It's not unusual to see the Member for Wollongong oppose government investments that generate jobs,” Mr Ward said.
Ms Hay said she welcomed new jobs but questioned “how many are we talking and where are we going to put them?”, citing the current shortage of CSNSW staff at Wollongong Courthouse.
The CSNSW spokeswoman said the number of staff to be employed at the prison was yet to be decided.
