{"id":6578,"date":"2026-05-07T07:34:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6578\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T07:34:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:34:26","slug":"adelaide-remand-centre-privatisation-branded-total-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6578\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide Remand Centre privatisation branded \u2018total disaster\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A damning new report has branded the privatisation of the Adelaide Remand Centre a \u201ctotal disaster\u201d, 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\u2019s $115m contract in August.<\/p>\n

The centre \u2013 privately run by the foreign-owned multinational prison operator Serco since 2019 \u2013 has been gripped of late by a string of assaults, frontline staffing issues, and regular severe security breaches.<\/p>\n

But Serco\u2019s contract is due to expire this year, and under state government requirements, a decision on the prison\u2019s future must be made this month.<\/p>\n

It comes as a newly published assessment by the McKell Institute concluded the \u201cprivatisation of the Adelaide Remand Centre has fundamentally failed to deliver efficiency, safety, or value for money for South Australians\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Major incidents at the remand centre include the deaths of two prisoners \u2013 one whose body was found in a shower on July 12 last year<\/a>, and another on January 13<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, assaults on staff and prisoners have doubled over the past five years, with 12 on guards in 2023-24 alone.<\/p>\n

The prison is regularly housing prisoners above its 274-bed capacity, with recent numbers reportedly nearing 320 and contributing to the dangerous conditions.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Public Service Association (PSA) general secretary Charlotte Watson called on the government to take back control of the centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe multinational experiment at the Adelaide Remand Centre has been a total disaster,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis report proves what our members have been saying for years: privatising prisons skims profit at the direct expense of proper staffing and safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need this facility back in public hands immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublicly run prisons are safer for our correctional officers, they offer better rehabilitation for inmates, and they ensure genuine accountability to the South Australian community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corrections Minister Michael Brown pointed the finger at the Liberal Party, which privatised the centre while in government in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a number of serious challenges that arise in trying to reverse Liberal privatisation and discussions are ongoing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a Serco spokesperson said they \u201ctake any commentary about safety, staff wellbeing, and service quality seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOperating a remand centre presents unique challenges,\u201d they said. \u201cThe population is complex and dynamic and this is reflected across public and private correctional systems globally. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur teams are trained to manage these risks and respond to incidents professionally and safely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A damning new report has branded the privatisation of the Adelaide Remand Centre a \u201ctotal disaster\u201d, as pressure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,23,133,7981,7983,7974,7968,7960,7962,7971,7979,7982,7980,7966,7977,7959,2294,120,7964,7965,7961,7970,7967,7963,7978,7973,7975,7976,7969,7984,7972,353],"class_list":["post-6578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-community","tag-bed-space","tag-charlotte-watson","tag-chronic-understaffing","tag-contraband-breaches","tag-corrections-officers","tag-faces-explosive-claims","tag-frontline-staffing","tag-fundamental-failure","tag-government-response","tag-hunger-strikes","tag-mckell-institute","tag-multinational-prison-operator","tag-new-zealand","tag-oceania","tag-pressure-mounts","tag-prison-contract","tag-prison-officers","tag-prisoner-escapes","tag-prisoner-rehabilitation","tag-private-prison-experiment","tag-privatised-remand-centre","tag-psa","tag-remand-centre","tag-remand-centre-faces","tag-security-breaches","tag-security-failures","tag-volatile-environment","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}