Yatala Labour Prison will expand by 312 beds, while the adjacent Adelaide Women's Prison will be boosted by 40.South Australia's prison system is set to undergo a major capacity boost with the addition of 350 beds across two Adelaide jails, the government has announced ahead of the upcoming state budget.
Department for Correctional Services chief executive David Brown said there were currently about 720 men imprisoned at Yatala and that the new beds would help ease pressure. The government said the work at Adelaide Women's Prison would begin in January next year, while the work at Yatala would start the following August and "run for a little over two years".
Opposition Leader David Speirs has welcomed the extra beds — but said it was "nuts" to boost capacity without backing it up with other measures."How do you expand prisons but don't have extra prison officers to cope with the new prisoners? "Once we get close to the commissioning of these new facilities that we're announcing today, in roughly two to two-and-a-half years' time, then you'll see further announcements from the government about providing the operating funding and hence the staffing allowance," Mr Mullighan said.