House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-10-30 Daily Xml

Contents

Prison Tenders

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (14:53): Given the minister's comments that the government is going to be doing work to ensure that they continue to meet the needs of the growing prison population, with all of the builds that the minister has just outlined and the 80 extra bunk beds that they have just put into prison cells, when, by the government's numbers, will prison-approved capacity be overtaken by the average daily number of prisoners in South Australia?

An honourable member: Good question.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light—Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:54): It is a good question, but it is also speculative in the sense that—

Mr Gardner: By your numbers.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: No, if you let me finish, in the absence of any other policies, obviously the numbers continue to grow. As indicated already, the government is looking at a whole range of strategies both in terms of people in prisons and also prisoners who will be managed on the outside. What I can tell the member is that, given all the announcements we have made to date, we anticipate that we will have beds for 2,714 prisoners at the end of this program.