PSA Alarmed Govt Preparing to Privatise Auckland prisons

The Public Service Association is alarmed the government is preparing to privatise Auckland prisons despite the evidence that private prisons cost taxpayers more to run and provide a worse service.

The Minister of Corrections Judith Collins has directed the Department of Corrections to look at privatising two prisons at Mt Eden in central Auckland - the prison that houses up to 521 sentenced male prisoners and the Auckland Central Remand Prison that holds up to 432 remand prisoners.

The Minister has also directed Corrections to look at privatising a new prison it’s proposing to build at Wiri in south Auckland.

Corrections is due to advise the Minister next month on the outcome of its privatisation consultation. A Cabinet decision on privatising the Auckland prisons is due by mid May.

“We oppose prison privatisation,” says PSA assistant national secretary Jeff Osborne.

“That’s because prisons run as a business cost more and deliver a worse service because they have to make a profit.”

“This was shown the last time a National-led government privatised the remand prison in Auckland.”

Figures from the Corrections Department shows the operating costs for the Australian company, that managed the Auckland Remand Prison from 2000 to 2005, were $43,000 per inmate. This was $7000 more than the Corrections Department costs per remand prisoner of $36,000.

The Australian company also provided a reduced service by refusing to admit prisoners after 6.30pm when its day shift staff went home. Now Corrections are running the prison again, inmates are admitted at night when they arrive late from courts or after being transported from another prison.

“By recycling a failed privatisation policy the government will benefit overseas companies while taxpayers pay more and get a reduced service,” says Jeff Osborne.

“Overseas experience clearly shows that private prisons provide a worse service,” says Jeff Osborne.

Performance reviews of 132 prisons in England and Wales, published last year, showed the 11 prisons run by private companies performed worse than publicly run prisons.

The Ministry of Justice reviews covered escapes, assaults, rehabilitation and other performance factors. Britain’s private prisons had an average score of 2.6 compared to 2.85 for its public prisons.

“In the United States private prisons have higher re-offending rates, have not delivered promised cost savings and a growing number of people are calling for their abolition,” says Jeff Osborne.

Figures from the National Crime Prevention Council, issued in September 2008 showed inmates released from private prisons in the United States had higher re-offending rates (33%) than those released from public prisons (30%). A U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance study in 2001 found that promises of substantial cost savings made by private prisons “have simply not materialized.”

Americans are also questioning the morality of companies making money out of denying people their liberty and have formed the National Public Service Council To Abolish Private Prisons.

“Why is the government here preparing to privatise our prisons when experience here and overseas show profit-driven private prisons cost more and provide a worse service,” says Jeff Osborne.

ENDS

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