Grafton Correctional Centre - History

History

Correction facilities were first established in Grafton in 1862 under the supervision of the Office of the Sheriff accommodating up to 48 inmates. A second complex was established but did not contain the required number of cells, was floodprone and unhygienic. A permanent facility was not established until 1893, known as the new Grafton Gaol, and proclaimed from 8 September 1893 accommodating 197 inmates, predominately male. The Centre is listed on the NSW State Heritage Register as one of few gaol complexes designed by private architects in Australia. It is one of few known examples of the work of Henry Wiltshire. It continues the features of gaol design developed by the Colonial Architect and is one of the few public buildings designed by competition in the late nineteenth century; its design utilises characteristic materials of the Federation period.

By 1924, the gaol had been reclassified as a maximum security prison; reverted to medium security by about 1945. After 1942, increasing tensions in the state's prisons and a number of serious assaults on prison officers led to Grafton Gaol being used to house the most intractable prisoners.

Riots at Bathurst and problems at other correctional facilities during the 1970s resulted in the appointment of Justice John Nagle to conduct a Royal Commission to oversee reforms to the Australian penal system. As best described by Justice Nagle during proceedings of the Nagle Royal Commission (1976–1978):

"It is the view of the Commission that every prison officer who served at Grafton during the time it was used as a gaol for intractables must have known of its brutal regime. The majority of them, if not all, would have taken part in the illegal assaults on prisoners."

"In some instances, the beatings began even before the security belt and handcuffs were removed. The beatings were usually administered by three or four officers wielding rubber batons. The prisoner was taken into a yard, ordered to strip, searched, and then the biff began. The word biff by no means describes the brutal beating which ensued. A former prison officer, Mr J.J. Pettit, described it: ,sometimes three, four or five of them would assault the prisoner with their batons to a condition of semi-consciousness. On occasions the prisoner urinates, and his nervous system ceases to function normally'. If most of the prisoners are to be believed, the officers had no compunction about beating them around their backs and heads; nor were they averse to kicking them when they were on the ground. They invariably abused them while they were hitting them, calling them 'bastards', 'cunts' and other abusive names. Sometimes they threatened to kill them."

Accepting the Nagle Report in 1978, the Wran Labor government began prison reform under the leadership of Dr Tony Vinson.

The Grafton Gaol was officially abolished by proclamation from 18 December 1991, and was converted to a Periodic Detention Centre in the same proclamation. The remaining prisoners were removed and the new Centre received its first detainees on 8 of May 1992. The gaol is now know as Grafton Correctional Centre.