" Pop-Up " Prisons !

There is no doubt that New South Wales has an overcrowding problem in it's prison system.  We still have some jails that were built in the era of transportation and cells designed to contain a single prisoner are often used to house three inmates.  This state is engaged in a $ 3.8 billion construction boom to ease this prison crush.

Last week saw the opening of the Macquarie Correctional Centre at Wellington.   This is a very new concept which has earned the descriptive name of a " Pop-up "prison because it is both cheap and fast to build and engages a new idea on how prisoners should be housed.  That concept can be described as " communal living " !

This jail is tasked with holding four hundred prisoners and they will be accommodated in sixteen individual " pods ", each containing twenty-five prisoners.  There will be no individual cells and all will live in " cubicles " which lack doors and have walls just 1.5 metres high.

Each of these " living spaces " will contain a bed, storage for personal effects and a table and chair facing a television screen.  It is hoped that this concept will give rise to educational opportunities and expand the entertainment possibilities.  There will be a total lack of personal privacy but the shower facilities ensure that this facility be restricted to single person use.

It is the " supervision " aspect that gives cause to some concern.  These communal living pods will be surrounded by a mezzanine floor containing offices and walkways from which the prison officers can view the prisoners clustered below. At night the lights will probably be dimmed, but every prisoner will be under twenty-four hour surveillance.

It is intended that this prison will contain a mix of prisoner classifications and such a mix could deliver problems in establishing the " pecking order " which is inevitable where people congregate. Some prisoners are naturally aggressive and others will be withdrawing from drug use.  This cubicle system will certainly allow the type of intermingling that may lead to bullying.

We would do well to remember a similar event several decades ago at Long Bay prison in Sydney. " Katingal " was designed as an escape proof prison within a prison.  Every prisoner was contained within an individual cell in which the light was on twenty-four hours a day and constantly viewed by an assortment of hidden cameras.  It was found that after a short time in this environment many prisoners became permanently psychotic.   An enquiry dubbed it an " electronic zoo " and it was shut down - and erased by bulldozers.

This communal living experiment is a similar step into the unknown.  Some prisoners may hanker for the privacy of the long hours they are usually locked down in their cell in normal prison housing and others may find the eyes watching them from above intolerable.  Communal living relies heavily on an " average person " reaction, but the prison population is far from " average ".   Many prison officers with experience of how prisons work have reservations about this concept.

It seems that this Pop-Up concept is the way prisons will be configured into the future.  Wellington is now a reality and it will soon be followed by another at Cessnock.  One aspect that appeals to the government is the lower cost in comparison with conventional prisons.