The second rapid-build prison in New South Wales has opened in the Hunter Valley town of Cessnock to deal with prison overcrowding.
The jail was built in just one year, a third of the usual construction time, because no cells were needed in the dormitory style accommodation blocks.
"It's new, it's innovative, and it has to my mind been a very cost effective way of constructing a prison," NSW Corrections Minister David Elliott said.
Twenty-five maximum security prisoners will be kept in each dormitory and will have access to their own cubicle.
The entire facility will house about 400 inmates, who will be under 24-hour surveillance by infrared cameras, with heavily armed guards patrolling corridors looking down into the dormitories.
Design leaves prisoners open to bullying, critics say
But critics say the new dormitory-design, which was borrowed from the United States, will leave prisoners open to bullying and inhibit their rehabilitation.
"It creates an atmosphere where people lose their privacy and therefore a lot of their self-esteem," said John Dowd, from the Community Justice Coalition.
"There have been occasions [in the United States] for group violence and injury to people, and that of course means ultimately, danger for the warders."
Mr Elliott said prisoners would be carefully selected for the facility, and would be engaged in a highly structured 15-hour day focused on employment training, education and rehabilitation.
"What we are doing is focusing on rehabilitation, so the actual accommodation quarters aren't going to be as important," he said.
"Soldiers live in the same conditions and do a very tough job. I don't think it is too inhumane for an inmate to live in the same environment."
New prisons needed to meet growing demand
Inmates are expected to enter the Hunter Valley facility in mid-February.
The state's first rapid-build prison was opened in the central-west town of Wellington last month, as part of a $3.8 billion Government spend on prison infrastructure to deal with a surging prison population.
Between 2014 and 2016 the number of prisoners surged by 3,150, an increase of 33 per cent, which coincided with the 2014 introduction of tougher bail restrictions.
Figures released by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research yesterday showed the trend steadied last year, with an increase of just 0.7 per cent for the year.
Bureau executive director Don Weatherburn said the NSW prison population would have continued to increase but for a large increase in the number of offenders released on parole.
"Between 2014 and 2017, the average monthly number of offenders released on parole increased by 35 per cent, from 504 to 682 offenders," he said.
The increase in offenders released on parole offset the rapid growth over the same period in the average monthly number of new prisoner receptions, which was up 20 per cent.
