A damning new report has branded the privatisation of the Adelaide Remand Centre a “total disaster”, as pressure mounts on the state government to decide this month whether to return the prison to public hands ahead of the expiry of Serco’s $115m contract in August.
The centre – privately run by the foreign-owned multinational prison operator Serco since 2019 – has been gripped of late by a string of assaults, frontline staffing issues, and regular severe security breaches.
But Serco’s contract is due to expire this year, and under state government requirements, a decision on the prison’s future must be made this month.
It comes as a newly published assessment by the McKell Institute concluded the “privatisation of the Adelaide Remand Centre has fundamentally failed to deliver efficiency, safety, or value for money for South Australians”.
It found chronic understaffing has severely compromised prisoner rehabilitation, extended lockdowns, and created a volatile environment that puts both staff and inmates at unacceptable risk.
Major incidents at the remand centre include the deaths of two prisoners – one whose body was found in a shower on July 12 last year, and another on January 13.
The facility has also been hit by a series of security failures, including prisoner escapes or attempted escapes, hunger strikes allegedly going unrecorded until hospitalisation in intensive care, and repeated contraband breaches.
Meanwhile, assaults on staff and prisoners have doubled over the past five years, with 12 on guards in 2023-24 alone.
The prison is regularly housing prisoners above its 274-bed capacity, with recent numbers reportedly nearing 320 and contributing to the dangerous conditions.
The pressures have forced Serco to fly in corrections officers from New Zealand and Western Australia, as staffing levels fell from about 70 to 20 following privatisation.
The report also found privatisation has failed to deliver value for money, with the cost per prisoner now higher than at publicly run prisons including Yatala and Port Augusta.
Public Service Association (PSA) general secretary Charlotte Watson called on the government to take back control of the centre.
“The multinational experiment at the Adelaide Remand Centre has been a total disaster,” she said.
“This report proves what our members have been saying for years: privatising prisons skims profit at the direct expense of proper staffing and safety.
“We need this facility back in public hands immediately.
“Publicly run prisons are safer for our correctional officers, they offer better rehabilitation for inmates, and they ensure genuine accountability to the South Australian community.”
Corrections Minister Michael Brown pointed the finger at the Liberal Party, which privatised the centre while in government in 2019.
“There are a number of serious challenges that arise in trying to reverse Liberal privatisation and discussions are ongoing,” he said.
Meanwhile, a Serco spokesperson said they “take any commentary about safety, staff wellbeing, and service quality seriously”.
“Operating a remand centre presents unique challenges,” they said. “The population is complex and dynamic and this is reflected across public and private correctional systems globally.
“Our teams are trained to manage these risks and respond to incidents professionally and safely.”