Jail Expansion To Bring 60 New Jobs
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday May 18, 2005
A FIFTY five per cent increase in Cessnock Correctional Centre's inmate capacity is predicted to inject an estimated $500,000 into the local economy each year.
The 250 new beds will also translate into between 50 and 60 new jobs worth about $3.5 million in wages and salaries, a spokesman for the Justice Minister John Hatzistergos said yesterday.The new beds are expected to be operational by 2010, with planning to take place over the next 12 months as part of a wider aim to increase the state's prison capacity by 1000.The 2005-06 State Budget provides an initial $2.1 million in planning funding for the 1000-bed expansion, with a total estimated cost of $257.7 million, including around $110 million for a new jail.The announcement was made at Long Bay Correctional Centre yesterday by Mr Hatzistergos and NSW Premier Bob Carr.As well as Cessnock, the plan includes a new 500-bed facility at a yet-to-be determined site in regional NSW, and a 250-bed expansion of the Lithgow Correctional Centre.The number of beds available to sick and forensic patients will also be increased from 120 to 220.Mr Carr said the State Government's expenditure on prisons was a key part of the plan to "keep crime rates low and make our communities a safer place to live"."Longer sentences, tougher bail laws and our record police numbers mean we are putting more criminals behind bars," Mr Carr said."That is why this year alone we will spend more than $164 million for capital works in the NSW prison system."The cost of the extra 250 beds at Cessnock will be determined over the next 12 months once the new building's precise location is determined, with plans for significant construction in the vicinity of the existing site, Mr Hatzistergos's spokesman said.The new beds are expected to be a mix of 150 maximum security beds and 100 minimum security beds, but those figures were not set in stone, he said.Cessnock now has 450 beds, 110 maximum security beds and 340 minimum security beds, at an average cost of more than $60,000 a year, according to the Department of Corrective Services said.This year, inmate numbers in the State's prisons topped 9000 for the first time, an increase of almost 50 per cent from 6169 in 1995 to 9083 in January 2005.EditorialPage 8KEY AMBITION? The expansion of Cessnock jail was announced yesterday by NSW Premier Bob Carr and Justice Minister John Hatzistergos. ? 250 new beds, a 55 per cent increase on its 450-bed capacity, at a cost of about $73.85 million? 150 maximum security beds, and 100 minimum security? Beds for sick and forensic increased from 120 to 220.? Between 50 and 60 new jobs? $3.5 million per year in wages and salaries? An injection of an estimated $500,000 per year in operational costs into the local economy? To be up and running by 2010
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