Corrective Services Assistant Commissioner Kevin Corcoran outlined the results of the department’s “benchmarking” process, which has been underway at Goulburn for the last few months.

Prison Officers Vocational Branch vice-chair, Jason Charlton said members were considering industrial action over the final plan.

“We have some very angry prison officers turning up here,” he said before Tuesday’s briefing by Assistant Commissioner Corcoran.

He claimed that 30 senior correctional officers would be cut from the current forty-nine. In addition the main jail would lose 92 officers. The Department says many of these will be picked up in the new $47 million high risk management and multi-purpose units under construction. Staff numbers there will jump from the current 54 to 139. 

In the final wash-up, custodial staff will number 239 under the benchmarking, compared to 241 currently, the department says.

But Mr Charlton says senior management is being “clever with numbers” and the impact will be severe.

“They Department will say that nobody will lose their job, which will be a breath of fresh air to some, but they will deplete numbers in the main part of the jail to man the new ones (high risk and multi-purpose units) and tell everyone they’re not cutting jobs,” he said.

“The concern is where they will pinch people from to do that. It doesn’t look feasible and our concern is for the impact on officers’ safety. (Under these changes) it will be one of the unsafest prisons in NSW.” 

Mr Charlton said people had to remember that the jail’s main section “did not go away” and remaining officers would be asked to to the same or greater level of work with less resources.

He pointed out there were no moves to reduce inmate numbers to relieve workload.

Up to five Public Service Association delegates were meeting with staff on Tuesday and Wednesday, following the briefing.

“Industrial action is probable unless we get the numbers we want and unless the safety risks are addressed,” Mr Charlton said.

The union is particularly concerned about the deletion of the senior correctional officers’ role. Currently there are 49 at Goulburn but this will be cut to 19 and restructured into a supervisory position. The role is being abolished across all NSW prisons.

Mr Charlton said although deletion of the Senior Correctional Officer’s role (SCO) was part of statewide benchmarking, it removed a key position.

“They’re telling us it’s a change in the job role to supervisory but we say there is already a supervisory position in place. They are essentially cutting the experience in the jail,” he said.

Mr Chartlon said the SCOs were essential in providing advice, training new staff and making decisions during critical incidents.  

“In our view, we can’t lose them,” he said. 

Across other areas, the Offender Services and Programs staffing will slightly increase, due to the new Supermax and multipurpose unit. This was also true of other areas such as administration, work programs for inmates and the prisoner welfare division, Mr Charlton said.

Across the entire facility, taking into account custodial, non-custodial, offender services and work programs, the jail’s numbers would jump from 316 to 323, the Department has claimed. This also considers the new $47m unit, which is expected to be completed in the second half of next year. It’s unknown art this stage how many inmates it will accommodate. 

Mr Charlton said about 80 per cent of benchmarking in the state’s jails was complete.

“So far Goulburn has the greatest reduction of numbers of any jail. There’s only Silverwater to go...They’ve left the hardest hit ones until last,” he said.

Three months’ consultation will now occur, with 12 months until implementation.

The Department did not respond to detailed questions from The Post but issued a statement confirming consultation on the “enhanced benchmarked operations” would begin.

“We hope to continue these constructive discussions between management and staff as benchmarking consultation continues,” a spokesperson said.

Mr Corcoran said last month the department was trying to ensure benchmarking didn’t produce “adverse results” for the regions and in many cases, consultation had achieved more staff than that proposed.