By Amanda George
The first private prison opened in Australia in 1990. In just three years, Australia now has the highest percentage of prisoners in private prisons in the world. Private security is one of the fastest growing industries in Australia.
There are two private prisons in Queensland, one opened at Junee in NSW this year and a contract has been awarded for one at Alice Springs. Unlike other areas, when prisons are privatised the government foots the total bill. The government pays private corporations to build prisons and then run them. They also contract out services such as prisoner transport, education and food.
The state's avoidance of responsibility for running the criminal justice system is a major concern arising from privatisation of prisons. That contracts for the construction and operation of such prisons are not open for scrutiny, not subject to Freedom of Information because of the issue of commercial confidentiality; that private corporations cut costs by installing electronic equipment and cutting services to prisoners; that there is evidence of corruption and interference in government policy on law and order issues where private prisons exist — all these are matters of concern.
On the question of whether they are cheaper for the state, Queensland economist Dr Allan Brown states that more information and analysis is necessary before the matter can be determined.
US experience
In research done in the US comparing the New Mexico private women's prison with its state-run counterparts, the prisoners found conditions better in state-run prisons except on the issue of physical activity. This prison was recently visited by Victorian corrections minister Pat McNamara as part of the Kennett government's strategy of replacing Fairlea women's prison with a private prison.
The New Mexico prison is run by the Corrections Corporation of America. Their Australian subsidiary, Corrections Corporation Australia, runs Borallan prison in Queensland as a joint venture with Chubb Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chubb UK. CCA US was financed on capital from the Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation. According to the vice-president of CCA US, "the business of private prisons is just like selling cars, real estate or hamburgers".
In the US, private prisons are now executing people as part of their contract.
The newest private prison contractor in Australia is Australasian Correctional Management, which runs Junee prison in NSW and the Arthur Gorrie prison in Queensland. ACM is a wholly owned subsidiary of another US private prison company called Wackenhut. They run Junee prison in a joint venture with ADT Security Australia, which is also a wholly owned subsidiary of ADT Ltd, a US electronics company. Wackenhut's US prisons use shackles or leg irons and belly chains on s Australian prison governors come from US prisons. The governor of Junee is an avid supporter of capital punishment. Every inch of Junee prison is monitored by cameras. In its first month of operation tear gas was used on the prisoners.
In the 12 months of Arthur Gorrie prison's operation there have been four deaths. David Biles, from the Australian Institute of Criminology, said after the third death that this rate of deaths was "much higher than the national average". There have been riots and fires at the prison over conditions. The last man who suicided there was in the process of suing ACM for negligence over the rapes and bashings to which he had been subjected.
Secrecy
The private prisons' passion for keeping things out of the public eye is illustrated by the fact that after the Brisbane Courier Mail ran stories criticising the private jail following the fourth death, the paper was contacted by the prison's lawyers threatening to sue them for damage to the prison's "commercial reputation".
One of the biggest hurdles prisoners and prison activists face is the silencing that occurs around prison issues. The Victorian government has now made it virtually impossible for the media to have access to prisons unless "to improve the public image of the department", according to the Corrective Services Director General's Rules. This sort of silencing occurs all the time around what goes on in prisons and is compounded by the pressure that transnational corporations can bring to bear on the media.
In the UK there is clear evidence that private prison corporations lobby governments on law and order policies. And why not? The more prisoners there are, the more business they get. In Junee a local council member has won a contract to provide sporting equipment to the jail. Clearly this meshing of financial interest and politics is absolutely improper.
Making money
Not only is there money to be made in private prisons, there is money to be made out of prison labour. In Victoria prisoner labour brings in $5.5 million per year. In Queensland prisoners are working in the River of Gold Slate Mine. They get $5 a day, with a productivity bonus of $2 a day. The contractors certainly have a river of gold with those sorts of labour costs.
There is a long history of privatisation in prisons which seems to be coming full circle. Private contractors were removed from corrections because of the high rates of death and abuse. Women prisoners were moored in hulks off Williamstown pier in 1850. In the last two years prison hulks have reappeared, moored in New York harbour and in the river Thames.
None of this is to suggest that state-run prisons have reason to be proud. The last year has seen increasingly punitive regimes operating in our prisons that can only have terrible long term consequences. Legislation is about to be introduced in Victoria allowing body cavity searches. These already occur in Queensland where prisoners can forcibly have speculums stuck in the vagina and anus. The sentencing the Victorian government, which created indeterminate sentences, is more than any private prison could have wished for.
[Amanda George is a lawyer who is active around issues of police violence and prisoners' rights. This article is based on a speech she gave to a meeting on August 8 opposing the closure of Fairlea Women's Prison in Victoria.]