Top security jails may go private

Prime Minister John Key will not rule out private contractors taking charge of maximum security prisons such as Paremoremo.

Mr Key said maximum security prisons could be part of the Government's plan to open up prisons to private sector management - "they don't by definition have to be excluded".

But he added: "Before the Government appointed anyone to run a prison, there would have to be confidence they could carry out the job and a track record to support that."

He said the Corrections Department had demonstrated it could run Auckland Prison at Paremoremo - which is in his Helensville electorate.

However, GEO Group, a private company which the Government is understood to be in discussions with, is running a maximum security prison in South Africa, meaning it also has a track record.

Mr Key confirmed that legislation allowing private prisons would be introduced soon, as revealed in yesterday's Herald.

"It is my expectation that the vast bulk of corrections services will continue to be run by the Corrections Department but I think it is eminently possible that facilities may be run by private sector contractors."

Mr Key said National believed that the Auckland Central Remand Prison - run by GEO Group under the last National-led Government - produced "very good results".

He said there was one escape for which GEO Group paid a $50,000 fine, good rehabilitation rates and it was cost-effective.

"In my view competition is a healthy thing."

Labour's law and order spokesman, Clayton Cosgrove, said overseas experience had shown "huge flaws" in private prison systems.

"There is certainly no evidence in New Zealand to suggest that private prisons can be run any more cheaply."