Capitalizing Assets !

Sydney's Long Bay prison complex is a tired old building often described as a "Rabbit Warren " by those tasked with guarding the prisoners it holds.  It started it's life in 1909 as a reformatory for women and a men's wing was added in 1914.   From 1917 until 1939 it housed the state's gallows and was the place of execution for all sentenced to death in this state.

The idea of a "Supermax " to house the most dangerous prisoners saw the creation of what became termed "Katingal " in 1975.   This contained the electronic wizardry of that time and every inmate was under twenty-four hour observation in what critics called "an electronic zoo ".  It was harshly criticised - and demolished in 2006 and a new prison wing added to expand the growing numbers contained within Long Bay walls.

Land prices have soared in Sydney and it looks like the median price for housing will soon cap the million dollar mark.   It seems to be a waste of resources to have a prison on valuable land just fourteen kilometres from the Sydney CBD.  An opportunity exists for capitalizing on state assets by demolishing Long Bay and creating a state of the art prison function somewhere in country New South Wales where a prison industry would create badly needed jobs and revitalize a country town.

The fact that Sydney is in the process of installing a new light rail transport system gives impetus to this idea.   Long Bay prison is a multi acre site right on the coast with panoramic water views of the ocean.  If it became available for housing it would be a sought after area which would command high prices and if light rail were granted a short extension from the proposed terminus at Kingsford to Maroubra Junction, it would be an ideal high density site with fast access into the city.

This seems an ideal opportunity to create prison reform - which many experts in that field claim is badly needed - by freeing up an asset which could fund this form of renewal.   Long Bay is already an over crowded prison with archaic facilities and a new concept would mix the broad needs of housing the general prison population and those more suitable for a more relaxed prison farm containment on a broad acre site.   We already have the Supermax situated at Goulburn to house the most dangerous category of prisoners.

All the regional prisons in this state are old and archaic in design and this fragmentation adds to the cost of imprisonment.  More to the point, their design limits the opportunities to use terms of imprisonment to teach inmates new skills and prepare them for a return to society.  Progress has been promising in some other countries where a graded system combines rehabilitation to mix with production work that has actually creates a prison income to defray costs.

In the past, prison reform has stalled because of the lack of funds.  Our present system is often described as the "University of Crime " and many first offenders emerge as skilled criminals. We have a system that is not delivering the results some experts tell us is possible if we can re-jig the  system from simply locking people away - to teaching them how to solve their problems.

Keeping a tired, worn out old prison on a hugely valuable parcel of land in a desireable part of the city will do nothing to change that situation.    Opportunity knocks  !