Victoria's newest prison officially opens

THE Western Plains Correctional Centre in Lara was finally officially opened today (Thursday, June 26) and will accept its first inmates within a week.

Prisoners will be transferred from Port Phillip Prison to the new Lara facility from early next week, with more than 900 expected by the end of the year.

Completed in November 2022 at a cost of more than $1 billion, the prison has been mostly unoccupied since then.

The Western Plains Correctional Centre will be home to around 900 prisoners by the end of the year.

Speaking at the centre earlier today, Minister for Corrections Enver Erdogan said the number of prisoners would be ramped up gradually, with the understanding corrections is a dynamic and challenging environment.

“We’ll have an initial number of prisoners, maybe a few dozen and then ramp up to a few hundred, but we need to do it in a careful way, because transferring prisoners is no easy task, especially when you’re dealing with a maximum-security cohort.”

The centre is the first adult prison to be opened in Victoria in almost a decade.

“Western Plains is really a very unique feature, it’s our newest prison as part of our correction system and now it’s a permanent feature, a maximum-security prison that will accommodate over 1200 people,” Mr Erdogan said.

“As a government we’re very proud of Western Plains, it was a $1.1 billion investment we made to make sure that Western Plains was built, it created hundreds of jobs during that construction phase, and now there are hundreds of ongoing jobs right here.”

While the Western Plains Correctional Centre completes its final security clearances, more than 400 custodial officers are now onsite, with staff participating in more than 100 emergency incident drills and checks.

Staff have undergone extensive training before the opening, including the dog squad searching visitors, cars and parcels for illicit items.

The new facility includes advanced security and barrier control systems, with new AI facial recognition, CCTV and movement system to monitor prisoners.

The St John’s subacute health unit will remain open at the Port Phillip facility beyond 2025.

“We are seeing an increase of prisoners as a result of our tough new bail laws and therefore we are going to keep some capability there opened, at least 20 beds will remain,” Mr Erdogan said

“We will have additional beds right here at Western Plains but seeing that we will have an increase in the prison population, it’s important we have the flexibility and ensure that we could treat those people within our prison system.”

The Victorian Budget 2025/26 allocated $727 million in 1,000 additional adult prison beds and 88 youth justice beds.