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Productivity Commission Report on Government Services 2017
Overview:
Released on the 31st of January 2017, the Report on Government Services demonstrates the failure of the NSW corrections system. Firstly, NSW has the most time in cells of all Australian jurisdictions, where prisoners spend 17.5 hours inside their cell per day for secure facilities where most prisoners are held (Table 8A.12 on p.475). Remand prisoners are held for 18.5 hours a day in cells according to the Full House Report by the Inspector General s4.56. It has got worse each year as you can see from that Commonwealth Report on Government Services.
Furthermore, NSW has the worse recidivism of all states and is getting worse. Defined as returning to prison under sentence within two years, last years recidivism rate stood at 50.7%, up from 48.1% the year before and 45.8 in 2014 (See Table C.5 on p.23). This is a total failure compared to the State Plan. NSW State priority in the State Plan:
The plan aims to make safer communities by Reduce adult re-offending by five per cent by 2019, though reoffending rates in NSW are increasing, with the majority of prisoners in the state having offended before. In fact, a small group of persistent offenders is responsible for the majority of crime.
The government is working to reduce reoffending by adult offenders and improve community safety and confidence in the justice system.
https://www.smh.com.au/nsw/recidivism-20160218-gmxmog.html
The Report also shows of all jurisdictions:
NSW has the Highest rate of assaults on prisoners (Table 8A.17 p.482), the most overcrowding (Fig8.8, Table 8A.14 p.477) and lowest investment per prisoner (Fig8.9 Table 8A.19 p.487)
This report leaves NSW Corrective Services very exposed. Passing responsibility to private companies for new jails is just an attempt to displace responsibility.