Prison facilities dating back to the late 1800s in Goulburn, along with ageing facilities at Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre, will be retired under changes designed to make conditions safer for inmates and Corrective Services NSW staff, and improve coordination.
These changes form part of a broader investment in the correctional system, with the Minns Labor Government planning to bring more beds and frontline staffing positions into public hands than ever before, including the ability, if required, to scale up in other prisons around the state.
Correctional services will continue to operate from Goulburn and Silverwater, with the changes impacting outdated wings and units, some of which date back more than a century and no longer meet modern safety standards.
The inmates from these wings will be moved to the Junee Correctional Centre.
The changes proposed by the NSW Government are said to “ensure all affected staff are presented with opportunities for redeployment to equivalent positions within Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW)”. Incentives for those who wish to relocate will also be in place.
The changes respond to recommendations previously made by the Inspector of Custodial Services with feedback on the state of the facilities at Silverwater. It was on these recommendations that actions to retire the Victorian-era wings in Goulburn be made.
These changes will come into effect operationally by the end of September 2026.
Minister for Corrections, Anoulack Chanthivong, said: “Community safety is this Government’s top priority. It is for this reason that we are retiring these Victorian-era facilities and investing in modern, secure and fit-for-purpose correctional centres.
“As inmate numbers rise, we are ensuring our staff have the safest possible workplaces and that those in custody are housed in facilities that meet contemporary standards.
“These changes strengthen our system and keep the community and staff safe.”
Commissioner of Corrective Services NSW, Gary McCahon PSM, said: “We’re committed to ensuring our correctional facilities are in the best condition and have the functional capabilities to meet our high operational standards – and part of that is taking some of the state’s oldest beds offline.
“After reviewing prisons around the state, we decided these reforms to our prison infrastructure are necessary to bring the system in line with our focus on operating safe, secure and humane prisons that provide better working conditions for our officers too.
“Crucially, these changes will allow us to move high-needs female inmates from Silverwater Women’s to modern accommodation units at Dillwynia Correctional Centre – ensuring our most at-risk women are in specialised, up-to-date facilities.”
However, the Mayor of Junee, Bob Callow said he felt disappointed by the lack of notice from the NSW Government of these changes.
“I’m not sure what ratio we will get, if we get half, that’s 85 inmates coming here, and they’re supermax inmates as far as we understand,” he said.
“That’s the jail’s business. Junee is a state-of-the-art facility, and I’m pretty sure they can handle those sorts of inmates. What the jail does internally is their business; it has nothing to do with Council, so I’ve got no worries or concerns there.
“The one thing that does concern me is that if we’d have had a bit more notice about this sort of thing, or even if we were given a heads up to say this is likely to happen, we could have engaged our real estate agents and builders and developers and said, ‘look, this is likely to happen’ and get some housing developments underway.”
With 85 inmates expected to enter the Junee Facilities, Mayor Callow said they are also expected to see an influx in correctional officers.
“As far we know, the ones that are being redeployed from Goulburn are being offered position all around the state, so hopefully, some will want to come here to Junee and assist the Governor here with his staffing issues,” he said.
“A heads-up there would have been really nice, so that we could just make sure we’ve got housing here in Junee for them, or the likelihood of housing, so they are not left in the dark.
“We are not partners in this game; we’re just on the fringe. We are not even considered when it comes to these decisions. That’s sad because they’re not really thinking ahead.”
Getting on “really well” with the Governor, Mayor Callow said they are happy with the current arrangements they have with him, but holds concerns with the Minister’s office, who don’t consider the Council as “partners in this whole game”.
“I’m not expecting the Minister to drop everything and ring us up and let us know, but surely his office must know that these sorts of changes will affect the community that the Correctional Centre is in,” he said.
“When the jail was being taken over by the Government, we got no notice of that, and that was really sad.”
– Jack Murray
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