It would be a great shame if inroads made into staffing at the Goulburn jail were lost in the current benchmarking process by the Department of Corrective Services.
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We only have to cast our minds back to late 2015, early 2016 when a string of violent incidents at the facility sparked deep negotiations over staffing. In one, an officer was sprayed with faeces, and in another, officers were forced to fire warning shots and deploy tear gas to quell a fight between five inmates. Staff were regularly in the line of fire in what their union claimed was an overcrowded prison. Many walked off the job for 24 hours in December, 2015.
Subsequent talks resulted in some extra staffing and operational changes but the overcrowding has continued.
The State Government is quick to spruik its “biggest ever” prison building program and strategies to reduce recidivism. That’s all well and good, but why is the Goulburn jail still 1000 inmates over capacity, as the Prison Officers Vocational Branch claims?
Obviously something has to be done. There is nothing wrong with benchmarking and improving efficiency. All government departments are subjected to this. Further, there’s nothing firm yet to say that it will result in staff cuts. The union is basing its assumption on the experience of other facilities, but the Department says it won’t jeopardise staff safety.
Yet it is also not giving any guarantees there won’t be losses. Overall, there has been little continuity and focus in State Government policy on prisons. First it removes teachers playing a vital role in rehabilitation and reducing recidivism, then, realising jail populations are rising, cranks up a $237 million program aimed at decreasing re-offending. Law changes have also been hit and miss on this front.
The Department either needs to reduce the Goulburn jail’s capacity or increase staff numbers until the promised new facilities here are built. Staff should not have to bear cuts in this often highly dangerous work environment.
The union has claimed Corrective Services Minister David Elliot has threatened facilities with privatisation if they didn’t meet the new targets. This is highly unlikely.
The government has quietly reversed its earlier mooted privatisation of four NSW hospitals following public backlash. We can’t see any appetite for privatising the Goulburn jail so close to another crucial State election.
