Victoria’s largest maximum security prison will be publicly run for the first time in nearly 30 years, with the government closing the privately operated Port Phillip prison and moving most of its inmates to a new facility near Geelong.
The corrections minister, Enver Erdogan, on Wednesday announced that the Port Phillip prison in Truganina, in Melbourne’s west, will close at the end of 2025.
Port Phillip prison, a maximum security facility with capacity for 1,087 inmates, has been operated by G4S since it opened in 1997. In 2017, its contract, worth $1.8bn, was extended for 20 years, but this was subject to the company’s performance.
Inmates will be progressively transferred to the government-operated Western Plains prison, located north-east of Geelong in Lara, from the middle of next year.
The new $1.1bn prison was completed in 2022 and can house more than 1,200 prisoners.
But other than a brief period when it housed inmates from another prison during bushfires, it has sat empty. Erdogan credited this to a drop in the state’s prison population.
“When the decision was made to open Western Plains, we did see an increase in the prison population – it was approaching approximately 8,000. Since the pandemic, we’ve seen a 25% drop,” he said.
“It’s fair to say that the pandemic was an intervening event. But, at that time, there was a need for a new-state-of-the-art prison and we make no apologies for investing in modern facilities. We’re going to see better outcomes of rehabilitation and recidivism.”
The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service said it hoped the publicly run facility would be better for First Nations people, including for access to adequate and culturally appropriate healthcare.
“The Allan government has made the right call, now this needs to be backed up with investment in Aboriginal-led, self-determined early intervention and community-based supports that rehabilitate and heal,” said its chief executive, Nerita Waight.
Erdogan said the government had “exercised its right” to end the contract with G4S, but would not comment on the cost to taxpayers.
“I’m not going to run a commentary about the performance at Port Phillip prison,” he said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for G4S acknowledged the government’s decision and thanked its staff for their “professionalism and dedication to create a modern, safe and humane maximum security prison system that works to maintain public safety”.
“G4S will work with our staff and partners to ensure a smooth closure and staff are re-deployed where possible,” they said.
Erdogan said that once Port Phillip was closed, only two prisons in the state –Fulham and Ravenhall – would remain privately run.
“They’ll continue to operate as they are today and the remainder of the system will be public prisons,” he said.
Both medium-security prisons have been operated by GEO since opening, and the US company holds contracts for their continuing operation that have more than a decade left to run.
Erdogan also announced that Dhurringile prison, south-west of Shepparton, will close later this year after 59 years.
He said some of the prisoners at Dhurringile would be released by September, in line with their sentences, while the remainder would be transferred to Beechworth prison.
Erdogan said workers at the closing prisons – about 800 at Port Phillip and 100 at Dhurringile – would be given the opportunity to work elsewhere within Victoria’s justice system.
Victoria’s decision to close Port Phillip prison follows other state governments’ shift away from private prisons.
In 2019, the Queensland Labor government announced it would return its two private prisons to public hands. Later that year, the Western Australian government said it would do the same with Melaleuca prison, leaving only one private prison in that state.
In 2023, New South Wales announced it would not renew the private contract for Junee prison.
