Justice Reform Initiative Media Release, 4 March 2025
Plans to build a $1 billion mega-prison in Western Australia to address overcrowding in the state’s prison facilities is a short-sighted, expensive proposal that fails to address the drivers of overcrowding.
The Justice Reform Initiative today urged the Cook government to engage with the evidence about what works to reduce incarceration, including the role of community-led bail support, First Nations place-based support, housing support, AOD support, and mental health support, warning that building a 2000-bed remand prison to alleviate pressure on the overwhelmed Casuarina facility is an incredibly expensive band-aid solution.
WA JRI Coordinator Kimberley Wilde said the evidence overwhelmingly showed expanding prison capacity is a costly and ineffective response to both crime and increasing prison numbers.
“Spending $1 billion on construction costs alone to build a mega-prison for people on remand—who have not yet been sentenced—is an enormous waste of taxpayer money. This will not solve overcrowding, nor will it break cycles of incarceration," Ms Wilde said.
“The experience of imprisonment makes it more likely that people will go on to re-offend. Although over-crowding should be taken seriously, instead of rushing to build a new prison, we urge the government to look at the evidence about how to reduce the number of people entering the prison system in the first place.”
“This funding would be far better spent resourcing and expanding proven support services outside of the justice system. The problem of over-crowding sits with Corrections, but the solutions to over-crowding are found in multiple other government agencies and community-led services.”
The proposed facility would impose a significant and growing financial burden on WA taxpayers, who are already spending millions on a justice system that isn’t working. The latest Productivity Commission data shows WA’s prison population has increased by 14.25% in the last 12 months – driven by punitive legislative settings that funnel more people into an already overstretched system.
While the Government reportedly won’t commit to any plans until after the upcoming state election, Ms Wilde urged the Government to provide detailed costings and a transparent business case before progressing such a significant investment.
“WA’s prison and youth justice systems are in crisis. They are failing to reduce crime, keep communities safe, or prevent harm to those being held in these facilities or the staff who work there,” Ms Wilde said.
“Western Australians deserve to know why this new facility would be any different. They deserve to know just how much this mega-prison will cost and the ongoing costs of
incarceration. How much more are the Government going to keep investing in a system of imprisonment that we know is failing?”
“We also need to know what efforts the Government has made to ensure this is the best use of taxpayer money. Before throwing money at adding new prison beds, has the Government done its due diligence and looked at an alternative business case?
“We urge the Government to engage transparently with the community and invest this money in evidence-based alternatives to prison which deliver far better results in breaking the cycle and reducing crime.”
The Justice Reform Initiative has recently published a series of position papers on key reform areas including bail, as well as reports outlining the success of evidence-based alternatives to prison.
Media contact: Pia Akerman 0412 346 746
The Initiative respectfully acknowledges and supports the current and longstanding efforts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to reduce the numbers of Indigenous people incarcerated in Australia and, importantly, the leadership role which Indigenous-led organisations continue to play on this issue. We also acknowledge the work of many other individuals and organisations seeking change, such as those focused on the rate of imprisonment for women, people with mental health issues, people with disability and others.