The objection to giving the only key or a duplicate key is the same.

The prisoner would be able to get out of the cell at will.

It’s LP’s headline that is misleading, not The Australian’s

A similar ploy was used in NSW in the 1980′s when the philosophy of ‘de-institutionalisation’ was used as a smoke screen to disguise plans to flog off the land on which mental health institutions were located to property developers and destroy the working conditions of psychiatric nurses whilst dumping mentally ill people in boarding houses and on park benches.

All this was duly aided by touchy-feely leftist social worker types within the NSW Labor Party, of which I was a member at the time.

We should all have learnt long ago that the inherent superior ability of private operators to deliver superior services is a myth. There is nothing that can be accomplished under a private contract that could not be far better achieved under public ownership with proper scrutiny and accountability

To learn some of the truth of the plans to privatise prisons, see NSW Greens MP John Kaye’s media release of 16 February 2009 “Robbo running away from his past on prison privatisation”:

Corrective Services Minister John Robertson is refusing to attend a parliamentary inquiry into prison privatisation, according to Greens NSW MP and public sector management spokesperson John Kaye.

Dr Kaye said: “Privatising prisons is against Unions NSW policy, against ALP policy and against the principles Mr Robertson has campaigned on for years.

“It is hardly surprising that he does not want to face the awkward questions that will inevitably arise before the Upper House Inquiry.

“He has a lot of history to live down.

“As Unions NSW secretary, Robbo was on the front line of the campaign to stop the sell-off of the state’s electricity generators and retailers, arguing that it breached Labor party and union policy.

“Now he is doing exactly the same thing to prisons.

“Mr Robertson represented the prison officers he now wants to hand over to the corporate sector against their will.

“At least five hundred jobs could be lost.

“These officers and the people of NSW deserve to hear first hand how the man who last year led the campaign against privatisation has become this year’s minister in charge of transferring the state’s prisons to the private sector.

“Mr Robertson is treating the parliamentary inquiry with disrespect. Not only is he refusing to attend but he is also pushing ahead with the privatisation process without bothering to wait for the inquiry’s findings.

“The Minister should reconsider his position.

“He should front up to the inquiry, face the difficult questions and consider the evidence before he proceeds any further,” Dr Kaye said.

For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455

In case anyone has forgotten Imre Saluzinsky’s appalling misreporting of the NSW electricity privatisation issue last year, please read “Media contempt for facts in NSW electricity privatisation debate” of 18 Sep 09.

Currently its in trouble in WA for killing dehydrated sick aboriginal prisoners transported from one facility to another in vehicles without air con or ventilation

Mind you the vans are Govt owned, and that particular Van was the same type that was also used by WA Police for escorts from the lockup to the courts and back, but have been around since Adam was a boy – but yes they still didn’t look after their charges properly.

And Ironically the Privatisation of Prison Transport was introduced by the Court Liberal Government of which Premier Barnett was a Minister of (though not in the Correctional Services area.

“Flesh-eating horror for TV host”
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/794118/flesh-eating-horror-for-tv-host