Ground has officially been broken at the Junee Correctional Centre ahead of the facility’s $220 million expansion.
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Local political figures gathered with members of CPB Contractors at the jail on Thursday, sporting obligatory hard hats and clutching ceremonial spades to mark the official beginning of the works.
The expansion will create between 250 and 300 jobs during construction and 130 construction, administration and correctional officer jobs following completion.
“It’s great news for local workers all over the region,” Cootamundra MP Katrina Hodgkinson said.
“It’s also a good thing for the inmates because they’re people too and should be looked after in a humane way.”
The expansion is scheduled for completion late next year and will see the addition of 480 maximum security beds, increasing the prison’s population from 875 to 1355.
The work will include refurbishments and extensions to existing buildings such as the gatehouse, health centre, reception and administration.
The project comes after the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research revealed the state’s prison population had reached 12,729 in February, with the cramped system designed for 11,000 inmates.
