I was part of a team of reporters at The Sydney Morning Herald who looked at the state’s prison system. We found that inmate numbers in the state have exceeded 10,000 a year and are forecast to reach 12,300 by 2015, with predictions that a new prison will be required every two years.
In addition, each prisoner costs the state about $73,000 a year, and the total cost of Corrective Services was $883 million in 2007-08, according to the latest Auditor-General’s report. The Wellington Correctional Centre, built last year, cost $125 million. Read the main story here.
A punishing regime
NSW jails are the most violent in the country. Former inmates talks about the harsh reality of prison life.Read more here.
Watch the video of Frank and ‘Douggie’ Walsh here.
More prisoners returning to jail
NSW has the highest reoffending rates in the country and is unlikely to meet its own targets to reduce this, according to prison experts. Read more here.
Prison watchdogs lose their teeth
THE NSW Government has quietly gutted all of the oversight bodies meant to police the state’s jails over the past five years, according to prison experts. Read more here.