SERCO gets WA court security and custodial services, Human Rights Alliance deeply concerned

SERCO has been selected as the tender respondent for court security and custodial services in Western Australia. Serco's history is questionable and WA should be alerted. More people die per 1,000 prisoner population in privately run jails as compared to government run jails. Serco's management of the Curtin Detention Centre Easter protests should come before a Government Inquiry.

The Human Rights Alliance is deeply concerned that Serco has been appointed by the WA Government and the Minister for Corrective Services to manage and administer court security and custodial services. This was not unexpected - G4S had earned the ire of WA communities. However Serco's own history is a troubled one.

The Human Rights Alliance is deeply concerned in light of Serco's poor management of Australian Detention Centres. The HRA is deeply concerned in lieu of Serco management at Curtin Detention Centre -the recent outright deceptions to visitors and advocates during the Easter period to the Curtin facility where Serco reneged on their visitor applications. The HRA is deeply concerned in light of Serco's public statements during the Easter period denying that they had circumvented visitor application protocols, denying that Asylum Seekers were protesting and when they finally admitted the protests they then denied or minimised the extent of protests, hunger strikes and the fact that Asylum Seekers suffered heat exhaustion. How can such an organisation which is not at all times truthful be trusted with the management of Western Australia public services?

5/5/11

Corrective Services Minister Terry Redman explained that the Government tendered for services within the Departments of Corrective Services, the Attorney General and WA Police.

Serco has secured, as widely expected, a minimum five year contract with options to extend.

The Corrective Services Minister Terry Redman argues that Serco shall focus on duty of care and the delivery of services in a safe, humane and decent manner however in light of Serco's historical and contemporary history with Australian Detention Centres and Australian prisons such as Acacia, and in light of the fact that prisoners die at more than three times the rate in privatised prisons as compared with government prisons (1.3 deaths per 1000 prisoners in government prisons as compared to 4.5 prisoner deaths per 1000 per annum in privatised prisons), and in light of G4S's horrific contribution to the death of the Warburton Elder in the back of a prisoner transport vehicle in 2008 and in light of G4S's admission of guilt to Worksafe related breaches in the Kalgoorlie District Court, and in light of the media coverage of Serco's mismanagement of visitors' applications to Curtin Detention Centre during the Easter period, and in light of Serco's lying to Asylum Seekers that visitors were not coming during this period, and in light of Serco exacerbating tensions at the Curtin Detention Centre during this period the Minister for Corrective Services must make public all terms of the contract between the WA Government and Serco.

Gerry Georgatos, Convener of the Human Rights Alliance, PhD Law researcher in Australian Deaths in Custody.

The WA public must have contractual and evidentiary proof of how Serco will manage duty of care, and how they will deliver services in a safe, humane and decent manner. The WA public must be availed to a schedule and proof of their training requirements for staff and proof of their performance measures against requirements and obligations.

The contract between Serco and the WA Government is yet to be asserted in its entirety. This is now the time for sincere and bona fide public scrutiny.

Propriety demands that all contracts between Serco and the WA Government are made public, and in lieu of recent history this is therefore in the public interest.

THE HUMAN RIGHTS ALLIANCE

Working towards a Better Future

We acknowledge and respect the traditional custodians whose ancestral lands we are now part of. We acknowledge and remember the horrific atrocities inflicted upon them. This is and will forever be their land.

CONTACT - Gerry Georgatos - 0430 657 309