PSA Media release:

If private prison operator Serco is not good enough for a prison in New Zealand, it should not be put in charge of NSW jails, says the Public Service Association (PSA).

Serco is one of the companies behind the Northern Pathways Consortium, which has been chosen by the Berejikilan Government to run a new privately run prison to be built outside Grafton.

Last year Serco was stripped of its contract to run Auckland’s Mt Eden prison after evidence surfaced of ‘fight clubs’ operating among inmates under what was discovered to be insufficient supervision of prisoners.

“We’re falling behind New Zealand here,” says PSA General Secretary Stewart Little.

“They discovered there is no place for this company in Mt Eden, yet we refuse to learn from their experience.

“Successful, efficiently run correctional facilities in Nowra, Cessnock, Kempsey and Wellington prove that if governments invest the money, they will get results.

“No private company should be profiting from crime.”

In addition to Mt Eden, Serco has lost contracts to run immigration-detention facilities on Manus Island and prisoner-transport operations in Western Australia.

In Britain, the company was criticised after the death of a 14-year-old boy in a Durham secure training centre.