The Northern Territory (NT) government has signed a six-month contract with G4S to manage the transfer of prisoners from Darwin amid ongoing criticisms surrounding the company’s track record in prison management. The huge and continuing increase in the prison population is a notable recent counterpoint. In turn, the government admits that there is an urgent need to increase staffing in penitentiaries. The growth of G4S’s responsibilities has raised alarm bells. Union representatives and prison officers across the country are currently staging a sit-in against the federal government’s continued use of private guards.
G4S has come under fire in recent years for its role in a number of controversial incidents. As recently as 2008, the company has been fined for its role in one Aboriginal elder’s tragic death. The elder suffered heat stress after being transported in a prison van across the Pilbara region of Western Australia. A Victorian coroner recently found that G4S should have done more to improve training for its staff. This recommendation came after the “preventable” death in custody of an Aboriginal man, Anthony, so his cells. These incidents have especially raised concern about G4S’s ability to uphold safety and security in correctional environments.
Increasing Role of G4S in NT Corrections
As of November 2018, G4S shifted toward a new 24/7 roster model. This amendment will be a significant step in improving support for external escort services, hospital bedsits and watch house services. This new amendment directly addresses the growing prison population. In addition to making things more efficient at a lower cost, it helps relieve some staffing pressures in the corrections system. Yet even as G4S continues to build bad practices into its expanded role, concerns about the efficacy of G4S remain.
Erina Early, a union representative, criticized the government’s reliance on G4S, stating that bringing in private guards might only provide temporary relief. She noted that it “hasn’t made much change to our correctional officers at all because the [prisoner] numbers are increasing.” As Early provided more detail on the impacts of relieving some shifts with G4S, it does not seem to achieve the intended results that they would like to achieve.
“They’ve been saying this since it was announced by Commissioner Matthew Varley, that G4S were coming in — as soon as you have them in, it’s like a cancer, they will spread,” – Erina Early
G4S’s expanded role is especially alarming in light of G4S’s record from recent years. In 2016, that same company paid a reported settlement of $5 million with the parents of Reza Berati. He was an Iranian asylum seeker brutally beaten to death by guards at an offshore Australian detention center on Manus Island. Together, such incidents have contributed to increased public and staff concern about the safety of incarcerating these workers and prisoners.
Concerns Over Safety and Management
In late 2018, the Victorian auditor-general’s office published a performance audit. It documented major failures which exposed poor management of safety and security operations on the part of G4S. Their findings have inspired greater demands for oversight and accountability when it comes to private prison operations. Despite these concerns, Corrections Minister Gerard Maley has stated that the government does not intend to privatize the entire NT prison system.
“There are private firms that run prisons in their entirety, that’s not our plan at all,” – Gerard Maley
Maley underscored the administration’s belief that the government should have the most professional, highly trained officers behind bars. In the meantime, the independent contractors, such as G4S, will run the outside services. The minister admitted that it’s critical to attract and hang onto corrections officers. This is critically important to address the growing prisoner population.
Protests and Public Sentiment
In November 2022, prison officers protested outside the NT parliament. They demonstrated to oppose the government’s choice of G4S private guards, giving notice of their anger in no uncertain terms. The protests speak to a larger discontent about the ongoing privatization of vital public infrastructure and services.
Erina Early expressed her worries about G4S’s increasing power within the corrections system. She stressed that many of these positions could be contracted out to the private sector. This direction doesn’t ensure more positive results for inmates or correctional officers.
“They have been taking more and more roles,” – Erina Early
The NT government has also undertaken a recruitment drive to hire 202 new corrections officers this financial year. This new initiative goes a long way towards correcting the harm inherent in G4S’s participation. The federal government is still making more progress on balancing its government staffing needs with outside partnerships. It remains unclear how G4S would be better positioned to improve overall prison safety and security.
