BATHURST will become home to an extra 250 of the state’s worst prisoners under state government plans to expand Bathurst Correctional Centre.
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Corrections Minister David Elliott announced on Wednesday that an extra 250 maximum security beds would be created at Bathurst as part of a statewide program to boost prison capacity.
In all, 4165 additional jail beds will be opened across NSW over the next three years.
Bathurst MP Paul Toole said the local expansion would create hundreds of jobs during the construction phase and 55 new full-time corrective services jobs once the new beds were open.
He expects work at the jail to begin by the end of the year with the new beds to open in 2018.
“We’ve seen a spike in the prison population and the government has invested $3.8 billion over the next four years to cater for that,” Mr Toole said.
“This extension will have a positive impact on local businesses which will benefit from increased trade.
“I am assured that corrective services is committed to the recruitment of new staff within the local and surrounding regions.”
News of the Bathurst jail expansion comes just a year after Kirkconnell Correctional Centre reopened in July 2015 to cater for a growing prison population.
Around 60 corrective services staff lost their jobs when Kirkconnell was closed in 2011 before the state government backflipped on its decision four years later.
Mr Toole said changes to bail laws and an increased focus on law and order meant more offenders were now being jailed.
“The message here is that this government is getting tough on crime,” Mr Toole said. “The prison population was going backwards when we closed Kirkconnell but that has changed around now.”
