4th International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP4) June 26-28, 2019 – Montréal Panel T05P12 Session 2 Social Welfare Provision: Practice Title of the paper Privatisation as an instrument of social welfare provision: The case of prisons privatisation in Australia Authors Deirdre O’Neill Valarie Sands Graeme Hodge Monash University, Australia
[email protected] Date of presentation June 27, 2019 1 4th International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP4) June 26-28, 2019 – Montréal Privatisation as an instrument of social welfare provision: the case of prisons privatisation in Victoria, Australia Associate Professor Deirdre O’Neill
[email protected] Dr Valarie Sands
[email protected] Professor Graeme Hodge
[email protected] Abstract Since the 1970s, many international jurisdictions have embraced private sector solutions to problems of social welfare provision. Prisons, once regarded as a core responsibility of the public sector, have not been quarantined from this process. In Australia, the state’s monopoly of correctional services ended in 1990 with the opening of the first privately operated prison in the northern state of Queensland. Now, nearly three decades later, Australia has the highest proportion of prisoners in privately managed prisons in the world. This paper analyses the experience of one Australian state, Victoria, which has made the most extensive use of a range of privatisation mechanisms to finance, build and manage that state’s prison system. Taking an historical perspective and drawing upon publicly available documents, the paper traces the evolution of prison management in Victoria from a traditional bureaucratic model in which the state had complete responsibility to one in which the private sector now has a major role.