It will be at least two years before the overcrowding pressure eases at Canberra's prison, with tenders now called for the final design and construction of the new low-security Reintegration Centre, due in late 2021.
The government had allocated $997,000 in the 2018-19 budget to the planning and initial design of the 80-bed facility, with the total project costed in the budget forward estimates at $35 million.
Canberra's current and only prison, the maximum security Alexander Maconochie Centre, was opened in 2008. It cost $130 million to build but has incurred ongoing capital works costs, including expanded accommodation, to cope with the rising population pressure.
The new "cottage-style facility" will swell the existing 15-bed Transitional Release Centre, which a recent independent report found was not operating at full capacity, nor catering for women prisoners.
The new centre would address some issues highlighted in the independent Healthy Prison Review by decanting prisoners preparing for release. It would also better suit low-risk women prisoners whom the report identified as being inappropriately accommodated under the current "one-jail-fits-all" approach.
However, it is unclear as to whether the centre will also be presented as a solution to house low-risk male remandees.
Remandees comprise 40 per cent of Canberra's prison population.
The original design brief for the jail incorporated a 60-bed reintegration centre and Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury has strongly advocated for the project. He previously estimated the cost of expanding the existing maximum security prison at "northwards of $200 million".
The centre will have shared kitchens and laundry facilities.
Reintegration and external work programs will be provided to ease the transition to life "outside" the prison fences.
