Jo-Ann Miller
The State Government plans to recommission the old Borallon jail near Ipswich to address overcrowding in Queensland prisons.
Corrective Services Minister Jo-Ann Miller said today the State Government had given the green light to recommission Borallon as a publicly run prison from early next year to accommodate 492 male prisoners.
“The Palaszczuk Labor Government is committing $145.3 million over four years for the operation of Borallon Correctional Centre to provide additional capacity as well as $8.1 million this year to complete its recommissioning,” Ms Miller said.
The Borallon Correctional Centre opened in 1990 and was mothballed in 2012. It originally cost $22 million to construct and was operated by Corrections Corporation of Australia, an American company that ran many US jails. Management was later taken over by Serco Australia.
“This won’t be the same old Borallon,” Ms Miller said.
“The Centre will partner with local community providers to offer leading employment, training and reintegration programs to get young prisoners’ lives back on track and break the cycle of crime.
“Fewer than 15 per cent of offenders who go to prison before the age of 21 have finished Year 12, and that’s a big part of the problem.
“Borallon will focus on curbing harmful behaviours while providing meaningful opportunities for young prisoners to improve themselves and increase their chances of getting a job, which is actually one of the best ways to improve community safety.
“On my watch, prisoners at Borallon won’t be sitting around all day doing nothing or learning bad habits. They’ll be learning or earning – it’s as simple as that.”
Ms Miller said Queensland’s prisons were overflowing.
“On July 1 there were up to 1402 prisoners sharing cells designed to accommodate one person. Sewage and water systems are at breaking point, prison medical officers are having to work in cramped quarters and staff are telling us that it’s unsafe,” she said.
“The LNP conveniently figured out they had a massive problem on their hands just as a State Election was approaching. They rushed out and tried to get the private sector to mop up after them.
“We had to take a close look at what they had planned. At the election Queenslanders told us resoundingly that they don’t like privatisation, so I’ve put a stop to the LNP’s sneaky plan to privatise our prison system.”
She said the reopening of Borallon Correctional Centre would ease doubling up of prisoners in male jails in southern Queensland.
Ms Miller said the reopening of Borallon would also mean more than 200 new jobs for Ipswich.
- External link: Borallon Prison To Be Reopened Without Suicide Proofing Cells (Brisbane Times)
