Beechworth's overcrowded prison sees inmate visits move to township

BEECHWORTH prison inmates are having their conjugal visits outside of prison walls because of over-crowding in the state’s stretched system, sources say.

For the past two weeks, prisoners have been allowed to spend time with their family at a dedicated property in the Beechworth township.

Sources said a guard would take a prisoner to the property, leave him there alone with family and make checks during the visit.

It is understood the prisoners selected to have off-site visits undergo a rigorous assessment process before they are allowed to stay at the property, which was being used for families who travelled long distances to visit their loved ones in prison.

The Border Mail was told the normal conjugal space within the prison was needed to accommodate 30 extra prisoners in the already full 160-bed prison.

But a Corrections Victoria spokesman said the off-site visits allowed for prisoners at the minimum-security centre to reconnect with their families as they came to the end of their sentence.

“It will also help better support a prisoner’s re-integration into family life once they are released from prison,” the spokesman said.

He said the visits were generally restricted to a few hours and all prisoners were subjected to strict drug and alcohol testing upon their return to the prison.

Victoria is one of the few jurisdictions allowing conjugal visits.

A Beechworth business owner, who did not want to be identified, said she thought the local arrangement was “bizarre”.

She said she wasn’t concerned about security given how familiar the Beechworth community was with the prisoners through its off-site work programs.

But she claimed the move rewarded men who had been jailed for committing crimes.

“It’s like taking a toy off a child for bad behaviour and then giving it back to them,” they said.

Indigo Mayor Bernard Gaffney said he has not received any complaints from Beechworth people.

“I’m sure that Beechworth Correctional Centre wouldn’t allow any prisoners out into the community unless they were very satisfied that the community was safe,” Cr Gaffney said.

“The centre has a very high reputation in regards to safety.”

He said the council was pushing for an expansion at the prison to meet the demands from a growing number of prisoners.

“We would like to see an infrastructure expansion and we have every confidence that will occur in due course,” Cr Gaffney said.

“And it would have a very positive economic impact on the community.”

Corrections service heads were considering bringing in shipping containers to house extra prisoners at Beechworth.

It’s understood they were waiting to see how well the converted accommodation would go at the Dhurringile Prison before they brought them to Beechworth, where rocky terrain could be an impediment.

The shipping containers have been used to house prisoners across the country and also used as university accommodation in Canberra.

Victoria’s prison population passed the 5340- mark this year.

Corrections Commissioner Jan Shuard said the organisation was considering options to manage the increase in prisoner numbers, including extra beds, work camps for low security prisoners and the use of electronic monitoring in prison.

“Community safety and the safety and security of our staff is our highest priority,” she said.