05-06-2025
NT government flags more private guards as bulging prison network grows to record numbers
The Northern Territory's corrections minister has refused to rule out using more private guards to help manage ballooning prisoner numbers.
According to NT Department of Corrections data, 2,803 prisoners were being held across the NT's prison network as of Wednesday.
The number is a record high after rising consistently for the past two decades, and marks a jump of 550 inmates since the Country Liberal Party (CLP) came to government in August.
Speaking to Stateline NT, Deputy Chief Minister and Corrections Minister Gerard Maley said the influx had created a "challenging environment" for prison services.
He said a $120 million funding injection into the system, allocated in the NT budget, would help to manage the load.
"This is extra money that's going into the correctional system to make sure that officers are safe and to make sure prisoners are safe," Mr Maley said.
The surge in prisoners has come as the CLP implements a range of tough-on-crime measures, including stricter bail laws and lowering the age of criminal responsibility, which have faced heavy criticism from a range of groups.
As prisoner numbers have risen, staffing has not kept pace.
An NT government recruitment drive has so far seen 138 new correctional guards employed inside prisons and in February private global security firm G4S was contracted to manage prisoner transfers in Darwin.
The union representing correctional officers has raised concerns bringing in private prison guards could mark the start of "the privatisation of corrections" in the NT.
"We are looking at trying to expand the workforce and we've got a rolling recruitment office, but it's just not enough because our system is growing," Mr Maley said.
"There's a whole range of jobs outside the prison … which can be used for independent contractors."
The deputy chief minister said privatising the whole NT prison network was not on the government's radar.
"There are private firms that run prisons in their entirety, that's not our plan at all," he said.
"Our plan is to make sure that we have highly trained officers behind the wire, and then independent contractors such as G4S doing the services outside that."
In May, a long-standing correctional officer reportedly lost his eye after being assaulted by a prisoner in Darwin, and the union has blamed overcrowding for fuelling a volatile situation inside jails.
But Mr Maley denies that the NT's recent surge in prisoner numbers, combined with a workforce shortage, has created a dangerous situation behind the wire.
"The situation right now is a challenging environment because we've got a record number of people," Mr Maley said.
"But this is about community safety and we need to make sure that people in the NT know that there's going to be a consequence for your action."
Rolling lockdowns, triggered by workforce shortages, have also affected the delivery of rehabilitation programs — with some providers in Darwin waiting months to see prisoners to complete assessments for the courts.
The trickle-down effect has left courts under pressure, with cases taking longer to be heard and remand times reaching record levels.
"We've been in office for about nine months, what we inherited was a mess of the prison system and the court system in relation to a lack of infrastructure," Mr Maley said.
"We're trying to keep the community safe, so we've got to get that balance right of rehabilitation and punishment and keeping the community safe."
As part of the NT government's prison master plan, new prison work camps have been flagged for Katherine and at the Holtze facility in Darwin in 2026.
By the end of 2025, a new youth justice boot camp and bail facility is also set to open in the Katherine area.
Mr Maley said the government was working on addressing social issues in the territory to prevent people from entering the criminal justice system.
"We know that education is an issue — I've been to the prisons and I've spoken with adult prisoners who don't even know the alphabet, they can't even count to 10 and they are middle-aged people," he said.
"I've been into youth justice and young people are going to school and they are not used to that because wherever they have come from and [in] their community, they don't do that."
Asked if these issues reflected failures of successive governments and if poverty was being punished, Mr Maley denied the government was entrenching disadvantage through its crime policies.
"We're working hard to break that cycle, to be able to give these prisoners and young offenders a better opportunity at life as they move forward," he said.
