NEW PRIVATE JAIL PLAN IS A BROKEN PROMISE, SAY CRITICS

Community groups and the Opposition have accused the Victorian
Government of breaking its election promise not to establish any new
private prisons.

The plan to set up a lower-security jail for young male drug offenders
has also been attacked for not keeping drug users out of the prison
system. But the government says the 68-bed jail will be part of an
existing prison complex at Fulham, in Gippsland.

Federation of Community Legal Centres' spokeswoman Shelley Burchfield
yesterday described the proposal as outrageous.

"It just completely flies in the face of what they said they were
going to do at the election last year," she said.

Brosnan Centre spokesman Father Peter Norden said the extra beds would
not be necessary if minor offenders were diverted away from jails.
"We're incarcerating our homeless, the mentally ill and people with a
serious health problem - heroin addiction," he said.

Corrections Minister Andre Haermeyer said the jail was "not a new
prison, but an expansion of the bed capacity" at an existing jail. The
jail would be built "on the same premises, but outside the existing
perimeter fences" at Fulham.

The shadow minister for police, emergency services and prisons, Peter
Ryan, said it was a disgrace local residents had not been consulted.
"This is a terrible way to go about it," he said.

Meanwhile, the lock-down of prisoners at Port Phillip Prison ended
yesterday after a deal was struck between management and the wardens'
union.

The lock-down followed the stabbing of a 41-year-old officer by an
inmate on Sunday.

Union spokesman Julian Kennelly said up to 10 extra people would staff
the prison.