Section 3: Prisons

CURRENT FACILITIES
 
Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre

Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre, located at Wacol, accommodates up to 258 prisoners across two accommodation areas - secure cells and residential cells.  It also acts as the only reception, assessment and placement centre for female prisoners in southern Queensland.  A purpose-built area accommodates up to eight women who are approved to have their children reside with them in custody.  In support of the accommodation of children within the facility and the role of women as primary carers, the centre facilitates a number of programs, activities, events and services related to women and children.  The centre has a structured daily program consisting of industry, education and vocational training programs that provide opportunities to address offending behaviour, and a range of activities designed to enhance personal development.

Helana Jones Centre

The Helana Jones Centre, located at Albion, accommodates up to 25 low risk female prisoners in home style accommodation. The Helana Jones Centre also accommodates up to five children of female prisoners who have been approved to have their children with them in custody.

Capricornia Correctional Centre (high and low security)

Capricornia Correctional Centre, which is located 20 kilometres north of Rockhampton, provides facilities for remand, reception and sentenced prisoners, with a total capacity of 498 male prisoners.  The centre offers a wide range of programs and services to prisoners, as well as providing an environment devoted to integrated vocational education and training. The centre provides full facilities for remand reception and sentenced prisoners of all security classifications.  The centre has secure and residential accommodation for high security prisoners and a farm complex for low security prisoners.
 
Darling Downs Correctional Centre (low security)

Darling Downs Correctional Centre is located approximately 15 kilometres south west of Toowoomba in southern Queensland.  The centre has a capacity of 140 adult male offenders in self-contained accommodation units.  The prisoners are encouraged to participate in a range of programs including education, self-development and vocational training courses.  All prisoners are required to work and develop work skills to use on release.  Employment is available in a number of areas including prisoner services, maintenance of building and grounds, and working in the centre's modern dairy and farm.

Lotus Glen Correctional Centre (high and low security)

The Lotus Glen Correctional Centre, located 25 kilometres south of Mareeba, accommodates high and low security prisoners and provides a remand and reception function north of Innisfail. The centre services the Cape York Region including Cairns, isolated communities and Torres Strait Islands. Its prisoner population is generally comprised of between 60 to 65 per cent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The centre provides prisoners with meaningful work opportunities in industry and farm work areas which provides skills that can be used by the prisoners on release in the local region

Maryborough Correctional Centre (high security)

Maryborough Correctional Centre, located about seven kilometres north of Maryborough, is a multi-purpose, secure custody facility, which accommodates secure and residential accommodation.  It is also a remand and reception centre for offenders from Bundaberg to Gympie.  The centre is considered to be one of the safest in the world, using state-of-the-art technology such as drug and contraband scanners, and high-tech equipment capable of detecting sound and movement around the perimeter.

Numinbah Correctional Centre (low security)

Numinbah Correctional Centre is a low security centre located 100 kilometres south of Brisbane in the Gold Coast hinterland.  The male centre is annexed to Darling Downs Correctional Centre and female centre is annexed to Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre.  Numinbah provides accommodation for up to 104 male prisoners and 25 female prisoners.  The centre encourages a self-directed rehabilitation model to prepare prisoners for release to the community or community-based supervision.

Palen Creek Correctional Centre (low security)
 
Palen Creek Correctional Centre, situated about 100 kilometres south of Brisbane, is designed for low security male prisoners, and is annexed to Wolston Correctional Centre.  The centres operates industries such as cattle (the centre has a mixed herd of approximately 300 beef cattle) and farm produce which supply the centre's kitchens.  By striving to achieve a world class correctional centre within an open campus style rural environment, the centre maximizes opportunities for prisoners to participate in and benefit from high quality rehabilitative programs.

Brisbane Correctional Centre (high security)

This centre is located on Station Road, Wacol, near Brisbane.  It is the primary reception centre for newly-sentenced male prisoners in south- east Queensland. The facility has a capacity of 540 cells and an 18-cell Maximum Security Unit.  Upon arrival at the centre, new prisoners are inducted into the correctional system, have their risks and needs assessed and have an offender management plan formulated to cover the duration of their sentence.  Prisoners are then transferred to suitable correctional centres elsewhere in Queensland to complete their sentence.

According to QCS, a variety of dynamic offender management regimes are utilised in managing the diverse offender population that include mainstream, protection, serious/violent and youthful (17-year-old) offenders.  Formally known as Sir David Longland Correctional Centre, the centre received its first prisoners in June 2008, after a two year redevelopment.  The centre has state-of-the-art security including computerised security management systems, surveillance cameras, perimeter intrusion detection systems, x-ray machines and drug detection scanners.  It also boasts a range of water and energy saving iniatives such as eight 22,000 litre rainwater tanks, water saving fixtures, new toilets with flush valves that control the number of flushes in a 24-hour period, timed shower controls and push button basin taps in cells that automatically turn off.  The $110 million redevelopment included:

• three, new 100-bed cell blocks,
• a new reception and processing area,
• a programs and delivery area,
• an upgrade of the existing administration and kitchen facilities
• a new enclosed walkway system, expanded carpark and upgraded staff   
accommodation.

Townsville Correctional Centre (high and low security) (TCC) and Townsville Women's Correctional Centre (in development) (TWCC)

This centre is located at Stuart, south of the city of Townsville.  The centre serves as the north Queensland multi-purpose centre for both remand and sentenced male and female prisoners of all classifications.  A $270 million refurbishment and expansion is currently under way at Townsville correctional centres.  The project includes a $142.5 million refurbishment and expansion of Townsville Correctional Centre (TCC) and the design and construction of a new $130 million Townsville Women's Correctional Centre (TWCC).  Ninety-six cells will be demolished as part of the expansion and refurbishment of TCC, to make way for a new 200 cells.  The project will also provide the centre with a new programs building, covered sports hall, five industry workshops, a central kitchen, visits area, detention unit and prisoner processing area. The new TWCC will be built on land adjacent to TCC.  It will be a 150-cell centre, capable of expansion by 200 beds.  Women are currently housed within the secure perimeter of the men's centre.  The new stand-alone facility will include an Indigenous meeting place, medical services, program education and sentence management and administration buildings, a new gatehouse, a central kitchen and bulk store, covered sports hall and a visits facility.  It will also feature special facilities for prisoners with disabilities and double unit - equivalent to eight beds - for mothers and their children.
 
Wolston Correctional Centre (high security centre)

This centre is adjacent to Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre and is one of the newer correctional facilities in Queensland.  It accommodates 600 protection prisoners.   Ferrous metal, steel fabrication, paint and powder coating are the major industrial workshops at Wolston Correctional Centre.  Industries operate seven days a week, 12 hours a day.  The centre takes an integrated approach to the delivery of services to prisoners through a structured day timetable, which enables half of the prisoners employed in industries to work in the morning and the other half in the afternoon.  This allows workers to attend programs, education, vocational training and to use other prisoner services during the part of the day they are not required for work.

Woodford Correctional Centre (high security)

Woodford Correctional Centre is situated about 100 kilometres north of Brisbane in the rural community of Woodford.  The centre is specifically-designed for high security male prisoners with a capacity of 988 prisoners in single cell accommodation.  It incorporates state-of-the-art physical and electronic security systems while maintaining a very interactive staff/prisoner management regime.  Woodford Correctional Centre has a very large industries base with 15 workshops that include furniture manufacturing, steel products manufacturing and upholstery. This venture allows Woodford to directly align the training of prisoners with an industry sector that is suffering from chronic staff shortages, providing prisoners with vital employment skills for use when they are released.

Work Camps

Work camps are established in remote communities, and generally are aligned to local
correctional centres.  There are 13 low security Work camps that accommodate up to 12
prisoners each.  While residing at these camps, the prisoners undertake community
service work to benefit the local town and district.  The Work camps, and the aligned
correctional centres, are as follows:

• Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre manages the women's Work camp at
Warwick.
• Capricornia Correctional Centre manages the Work camps at:
• Clermont
• Blackall
• Springsure
• Darling Downs Correctional Centre manages the Work camps at:
• Mitchell
• Dirranbandi
• St George
• Charleville
• Lotus Glen Correctional Centre managers the Work camp at Innisfail.
• Townsville Correctional Centre manages the Work camps at:
• Boulia
• Julia Creek
• Winton
• Bowen (women's).

Two privately contracted centres -

Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre (high security) is located at Wacol near Brisbane.  It is privately managed and operated by GEO Group Australia under contract to QCS.  It is the current remand centre for south-east Queensland with a single bed capacity for 710 prisoners.  Industries at the centre consist of printing, woodworking and textiles. These allow prisoners to develop useful trade skills to assist with their successful reintegration into the community. Professional services are supplied to assist prisoners to cope with incarceration and prepare them for release into the community. These services include psychological, psychiatric, counselling and specialist referrals.

Borallon Correctional Centre (high security) is located west of Ipswich, outside Brisbane.  It is a high security centre and is managed and operated by Serco Australia Pty Ltd under contract to QCS.  Borallon holds an average of 490 male prisoners.  Programs at Borallon are broken into four different areas - planning (sentence management); intervention (vocation, education and training); intervention (criminogenic and personal development); assessment services and health services.  Borallon also expects all offenders to engage in full-time employment or education and each prisoner employment position is assigned to a formal qualification.

The new South East Queensland correctional precinct

The South-East Queensland correctional precinct is a cornerstone of Queensland Corrective Services' (QCS) prisons of the future.  To accommodate the growth in prisoner numbers - a national trend - the precinct will initially incorporate a 300-bed women's correctional centre and 500-bed men's centre, with the eventual potential to accommodate up to 3000 prisoners.  Set on 600 acres of land in the Lockyer Valley, just outside Gatton, the construction of the state-of-the-art correctional facility will be completed in stages, with the first stage scheduled for completion in 2011.  This will be similar to the Wacol precinct project.

This first stage will be the women's correctional centre, where construction started in October 2008.  When open, the women's centre alone is expected to create about 200 new jobs in a range of roles including custodial officers, programs staff, administration and intelligence. In 2015, when the precinct is expected to be fully commissioned, it will employ up to 1750 people.

CLOSED FACILITIES

1992 - Townsville blocks closed as ‘inhumane'

B and C Blocks of Townsville were closed after campaigning by the federal Human Rights Commissioner.  It was claimed that the Blocks contravened international conventions on the treatment of prisoners.

1992 - Boggo Road closed by Prisons Minister Milliner

Minister Milliner had the ‘satisfying duty of closing 109 years of prison history'. Brisbane Women' Correctional Centre was at that time still located at Boggo Road, and was eventually closed in 1998-9, with a new Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre being opened at that time as a replacement.  Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre partially replaced the prison by housing remand inmates.