Minns government to spend $47.1m to recommission part of Silverwater jail while PSA says prison alone will not end violent behaviour.
The reopening of part of Sydney’s Silverwater jail will deliver hundreds of extra beds amid record numbers of prisoners on remand, the state government says, as the prison officers’ union warns against “arrest[ing] our way out of domestic violence”.
The Minns government, responding to a surge in prisoners awaiting trial since domestic violence bail laws were tightened, announced on Monday it will spend $47.1m to recommission the 515-bed Dawn de Loas correctional centre at the Silverwater complex by early next year.
The additional beds come amid calls for action on domestic and family violence after the alleged murders of three women and two children this month.
On 11 September this year, Daniel Billings was sentenced to 28 years in jail for the 2024 murder of Forbes woman, Molly Ticehurst.
While it called for “properly resourced” domestic violence programs for people leaving custody on parole, the premier said the government had increased funding for domestic and family violence services.
Dawn de Loas temporarily closed in November 2022 amid a declining prison population and staff shortages during the pandemic.
The government anticipates fast-tracking an additional 360 beds at Parklea correctional centre, one of two privately managed correctional centres in NSW, after Corrective Service resumes management in October.
On Monday, the corrections minister, Anoulack Chanthivong, ruled out closing Long Bay correctional centre’s Metropolitan Special Programs Centre, where a 19-year-old man took his own life in May while on remand.