Cade Lucas with Callum Godde, AAP
Victoria will close two prisons, including a privately-run maximum security one in Truganina, and shift inmates to a $1.1 billion facility that has been sitting idle for almost two years.
Port Phillip Prison will close by the end of 2025 and the 59-year-old Dhurringile Prison will close within months, Corrections Minister Enver Erdogan announced on Wednesday.
“I want to thank our staff at Dhurringile and G4S staff at Port Phillip Prison for the vital work they do every day in keeping people in custody and the community safe,” Minister Erdogan said.
“They will be supported during this transition and be provided opportunities to take up new roles.”
Inmates at Dhurringile will likely move to the Beechworth minimum security prison.
Port Phillip Prison is privately operated by G4S and has been open since September 1997 with a capacity of 1087 inmates.
The state’s contract with G4S was renegotiated in 2015 to extend beyond 2017 for up to 20 years, depending on performance.
Western Plains Correctional Facility is a maximum security, 1200-bed, high-tech prison that uses artificial intelligence to track people through its CCTV and will be publicly-run.
The modern facility will offer prisoners better access to training and employment facilities.
Inmates will have increased access to specialist training and employment facilities.
Victoria’s Yoorrook Justice Commission, the truth-telling inquiry run as part of the state’s treaty process with Aboriginal people, heard in 2023 the $1.1 billion Western Plains prison was sitting idle.
The decision to build the prison was made before the COVID-19 pandemic when detainee numbers were increasing, Corrections Victoria Commissioner Larissa Strong told the inquiry.
Construction was completed in November 2022 and at the time of her appearance in May 2023 at the commission, Ms Strong estimated the empty prison had cost Corrections $36 million to maintain and secure.
The future of the closed prison sites is yet to be decided.
