By Paloma Migone of NZPA

Wellington, Dec 10 NZPA - The Corrections Department is working on plans to hand over two publicly run prisons to the private sector.

Corrections Minister Judith Collins said she was still talking to unions about various issues and the Government was looking at tendering.

"There is still a long way to go with it yet to make sure we provide the process. And we have people assisting us to make sure that Corrections gets all the help it needs, so that we get the process working very well," she told NZPA.

"I'm not prepared to rush it without getting the process right and the outcome right. I'm not trying to put any time limits on myself or Corrections. I'm trying to get the best deal for New Zealand."

The bill allowing the privatisation of prisons was passed in an urgency vote late last month, amid strong opposition from the Labour Party.

Ms Collins has said Auckland's Mt Eden Prison could be this Government's first privately run facility when redevelopment is completed there in 2011. The second would likely be the one being built at Wiri in south Auckland.

New Zealand has 20 prisons and Ms Collins said about 10 percent of them needed to be privately run prisons.

The new law on private prisons ensures public accountability and would operate under the Corrections department umbrella, she said.

Clayton Cosgrove, Labour spokesman for Corrections, said there was no evidence private prisons would be more effective than publicly run ones.

"If you look at the UK examples where private prisons have been put in place, they are all in the bottom quartile of performance of all other prisons in the UK," he said.

The Labour Party's main concern with the legislation was the loss of transparency, removing the ability to access information directly from the Corrections Department.

Mr Cosgrove said he could no longer raise a parliamentary question to the minister directly about private prisons.

"The auditor-general does not have the same level of penetration into a private sector company as he does in the department. "

That inability was "very dangerous in respect in protecting prison officers and ensuring that the public is safe".

Under the new law, the manager of the prison must arrange written reports to the Correction Department's chief executive about staff training, complaints, incidents, among other things. And a monitor, appointed by the chief executive, will have the power to investigate any matter about the prison or prisoners.

Ms Collins said based on her trips to visit private prisons in Australia, prisoner treatment is far better in private prisons than public ones.

"If any prisoners are ill treated that would be a breach of the contract and there would be fines associated with that, and quite possibly a contract could be lost."

The new Act outlines that private contractors' standards for management performance and prisoners' care must not be lower than those of publicly run prisons.

Contractors must comply with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, the Public Records Act 2005, and international obligations as if the prison were managed by the Government.

Ms Collins said privately managed prisons in New South Wales had achieved a 32 percent savings in costs and in Victoria an 11 percent saving, but she said she did not know whether there would be huge savings in New Zealand -- "particularly with the requirements that I expect to have around every involvement in rehabilitation programmes".

"What we are really looking for in New Zealand is benchmarking ourselves," she said. "We are really seeking some competition to improve our own game. It's not really about just going for cost savings."

Mr Cosgrove said the minister needed to raise the bar, but there were other ways to do it instead of privatisation.

"I've been a minister. When I wanted the bar lifted, I gave a set of instructions and said here is what I want and I will hold you, the chief executive, accountable for them. It's quite easy and you don't have to privatise to do that," he said.

"It's a matter of ministerial will."

The prison staff union, the New Zealand Corrections Association, has previously expressed concern over the change of legislation as well, launching "Stop the cell-off" rallies throughout the country.

Association president Beven Hanlon told NZPA its main concern was that prisons would "solely be there to make money for shareholders".

Private facilities would deliver lower standards, and guards could face losing their jobs or have wages reduced, he said.

But Ms Collins disagreed.

"I'm surprised the Corrections Association is so worried," Ms Collins said.

"I'm not worried ... because obviously there will be jobs offered to them by the private sector. But also there is no shortage of work in Corrections in the state sector."

But Mr Hanlon said there was a rising unemployment rate and private prisons paid 30 percent less, giving the example of Parklea Prison in Sydney.

"They privatised about one month ago. Now the union there has told us that the salary there has dropped 30 percent. They used to have 94 staff a day on a shift, the new company operates with 62.

"If this is only about making a better prison service and not about cutting jobs and wages for New Zealand workers, ... put into the Act that any contract that comes in will have to pay the same as the Department of Corrections, and they would have to have the same staffing arrangements," he said.

"They've not put them in. They've chosen not to protect these workers in this workforce."