MEDIA RELEASE

11/05/2010

Privatising Auckland prison will cost taxpayers more and deliver less

The government’s move, announced today, to put the joint Mt Eden-Auckland Central Remand Prison (ACRP) under private management won’t bring any benefits to the public says PSA National Secretary Richard Wagstaff.

“The last time the ACRP was privatised it cost the government more than what it did when it was publicly run. Between 2000 and 2005 it cost the Australian company managing the remand prison $43,000 per inmate to run it. During the same period Corrections’ operating costs per remand prisoner were $36,000.

“Corrections Minister Judith Collins says private management will allow new ideas and new innovations into the corrections sector but overseas experience shows that public private partnerships are a particularly inappropriate model to apply to prisons.

“In Britain they score badly on security, maintaining order and control and often cut corners by employing fewer staff. The state of Victoria in Australia has already moved away from private prisons,” says Richard Wagstaff.

“Private contractors have a vested interest in repeat customers and seek to maximise profits at the expense of rehabilitation programmes, there’s nothing innovative about that,” says Richard Wagstaff.

“Do we really want to increase the cost to the taxpayer and put the public’s safety at risk by handing over our prison service to those who want to make a profit from it?”