The prison was not popular.

About 20 years after it opened, The Goulburn Herald and Chronicle, precursor to this newspaper, called for the building to be demolished because “a greater blemish could scarcely exist in the midst of a thriving city”.

The newspaper had its wish and in 1884 the new Goulburn Gaol on Maud Street was commissioned.

It remains today and there are certainly no plans to demolish it.

In fact, Corrective Services NSW is a proud employer in Goulburn and intends on maintaining this tradition by continuing to invest in the historic prison to meet the demands of the 21st century.  

Next month, we’ll begin consulting with staff and the union on benchmarking at the centre to ensure Goulburn meets agreed performance standards, while maintaining security and efficiency.

The proportion of middle management positions in NSW prisons is substantially higher than other jurisdictions.

We want to increase frontline correctional officer coverage through more effective rostering and deployments.

We are conscious of the impact this could have on regional areas, however we’re building new prisons, expanding centres and investing in rehabilitation programs, which will mitigate this. 

Work commenced last month to upgrade two of Goulburn’s most secure facilities: the High Risk Management Correctional Centre, known as Supermax, and the Multi Purpose Unit.

The works are part of a $47 million statewide plan to combat radicalisation in the prison system and will create new roles for frontline staff.

As this newspaper announced this week, CSNSW is also investing in phone-jamming at Goulburn, rendering useless any mobile phones smuggled into the prison.

This is a significant monetary investment in high-tech equipment, which will be rigorously tested to ensure it has no impact on any surrounding properties.

CSNSW is also refocusing and realigning our objectives, so we can meet the NSW Premier’s targets for reducing reoffending and domestic violence, through an increase in rehabilitation and programs for offenders.

A record $330 million is being invested across the state to make communities safer, including new Custodial Case Management Units for improved monitoring and rehabilitation of inmates, which is creating about 150 new roles.

On a whole, more than 2100 extra jobs were introduced into the system in the last two years, with new correctional officers, rehabilitation experts, and intelligence specialists joining the ranks.

We value the incomparable knowledge and skill base of our long-term experienced officers in Goulburn and we don’t want to lose it.

We want to utilise that wisdom gained within the department, and will be making every effort to ensure that staff affected by benchmarking are found other CSNSW jobs in the area.