JAIL OPERATOR SACKED

The Victorian Government yesterday took control of the Metropolitan
Women's Correctional Centre at Deer Park after sacking the jail's
private operators.

The dramatic action follows a damning report that found prison
operators Corrections Corporation of Australia had breached their
contract with the government in relation to security and drug
prevention programs. Corrections Minister Andre Haermeyer said drug
abuse at Deer Park was the worst in the state, with one in four
prisoners using illegal drugs.

The government's tough line on Deer Park has effectively given notice
to the operators of the state's two other privately run prisons, Port
Phillip Prison at Laverton and Fulham Correctional Centre near Sale,
that their performance will be closely scrutinised.

The government went into last year's election promising to review the
contracts entered into with the former Kennett government. But Mr
Haermeyer said the situation at Deer Park was separate from Port
Phillip and Fulham, which were meeting their obligations.

The government regained control of the prison about midday, with a new
management team backed by nearly two dozen additional security
officers moving in.

The managing director of Corrections Corporation of Australia, Terry
Lawson, said in a statement that the company was seeking legal advice.
It had been the victim of a concerted campaign by Mr Haermeyer, he
said. "There is no reason for the government to claim 'step in'
rights. There is no emergency and the prison is operating efficiently
and peacefully," he said.

The government has issued three default notices on the prison this
year, identifying lapses in security allowing high-risk prisoners to
attack prisoners in other units, lack of staff resulting in continuous
lock-downs and a failure to conduct mandatory drug testing.

In May, a fire in the maximum security management unit resulted in
firefighters being locked in alongside prisoners, while in a separate
incident, police officers were admitted to the prison carrying firearms.

Mr Haermeyer said yesterday he had no choice but to take control in
the interests of public safety and the welfare of staff and prisoners.

"The operator was given repeated opportunities to fix the problems and
meet its contractual obligations, but failed to adequately respond to
verbal and written warnings and three default notices," Mr Haermeyer
said.

Correctional Services Commissioner Penny Armytage said she had met
regularly with prison management to "spell out" where the service was
failing to meet industry standards. She said the reaction had been
"piecemeal and makeshift".

Prisoners were locked down yesterday afternoon as Ms Armytage went to
the prison to formally notify management that the government had
exercised its power under the Corrections Act to take control.

An interim management team, led by John Griffin, general manager of
Public Correctional Enterprise, was installed. Brendan Money, general
manager of Central Regional Prisons, will assume the role of general
manager.

Opposition corrections spokesman Kim Wells said Mr Haermeyer had a
deep personal hatred of private prisons and was on a political
"witch-hunt". Communication from the commissioner's office to the
prison's management had been "woeful".

But the Community and Public Sector Union, which represents prison
officers at Deer Park, church groups and the Federation of Community
Legal Centres all welcomed the move.

CPSU spokesman Julian Kennelly said staff were "stressed to the max"
dealing with 30 inmates to one officer on a daily basis and prisoners
were being denied access to basic prison programs as a result.

"For many years now the jail has run at staffing levels which haven't
been able to support the number of women that have been incarcerated,"
he said.

Amanda George, of the Federation of Community Legal Centres, said
almost 25 per cent of prisoners were in protection units, compared
with about 2 per cent in prisons in other states.

"So much damage has been done that it is going to be very hard to turn
it around," Ms George said. "They are going to need to pour enormous
resources into the prison to make the women feel safe in a prison that
is reeling with violence." Victorian Uniting Church social justice
leader, the Reverend David Pargeter, said the private operators had
been "nothing short of disastrous".

Independent investigations by the church into the running of the
prison had revealed a self-mutilation rate four to six times higher
than at any state-run prison, and prisoner assaults on other prisoners
were two to three times higher than at any other state-run prison, he
said.

"We believe that the removal of CCA from the management of the prison
has been long overdue," Reverend Pargeter said. "We believe that
prisons should not be run as profit-making enterprises."

In April, the state coroner found that the private operators of Port
Phillip Prison, Group 4 Correctional Services, and the former Kennett
government had contributed to the hanging deaths of four prisoners.
The Bracks Government took no action against Group 4