Victoria will close two prisons, including a privately-run maximum security centre, and shift inmates to a $1.1 billion facility that has been sitting idle for almost two years.
Port Phillip Prison will close by the end of 2025 and the 59-year-old Dhurringile Prison will close within months, Corrections Minister Enver Erdogan announced on Wednesday.
Port Phillip Prison is privately operated by G4S with a capacity of 1087 inmates and has been open since September 1997.
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The state’s contract with G4S was renewed in 2015 and agreement extensions were expected to continue for 20 years, depending on performance.
Workers at both prisons to be closed will be offered the opportunity to work elsewhere within Victoria’s justice system.
Inmates at Dhurringile will likely move to the Beechworth minimum security prison.
Victoria’s Yoorrook Justice Commission, the truth-telling inquiry run as part of the state’s treaty process with Aboriginal people, heard in 2023 the $1.1 billion Western Plains prison was sitting idle.
The decision to build the prison was made before the COVID-19 pandemic when detainee numbers were increasing, Corrections Victoria Commissioner Larissa Strong told the inquiry.
Construction was completed in November 2022 and at the time of her appearance at the commission in May 2023, Strong estimated the empty prison had cost Corrections Victoria $36 million to maintain and secure.