Vic: Inquiry to be held into private prisons operations, govt

AAP General News (Australia)
04-27-2000
Vic: Inquiry to be held into private prisons operations, govt

The Victorian government has called an inquiry into the operations of private prisons
following a damning coronial report.

Corrections Minister ANDRE HAERMEYER ordered the inquiry after an investigation into
the suicide of five inmates at the Port Phillip Prison.

The report criticised the former KENNETT government and the private prison operator
for not removing hanging points from cells before the jail opened in August 1997.

The government inquiry will look at staffing, safety and health arrangements in prisons.

Mr HAERMEYER says the coroner's finding is a damning indictment of the previous KENNETT
government's refusal to listen to advice about its prison privatisation program.

But he says the current BRACKS government is bound by contracts between the previous
KENNETT government and private operators.

AAP RTV tsc/jlw/gmw/jn

KEYWORD: PRISON DEATHS GOVT (MELBOURNE)

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