The McKell Institute has delivered a scathing assessment of the privatisation of the Adelaide Remand Centre (ARC), concluding the experiment has failed on cost, safety, staffing, and accountability grounds, as pressure mounts on the South Australian Government to return the prison to public hands.
Serco's $115 million contract to operate the ARC is due to expire in August this year, with the State Government required to determine the facility's future this month.
The new report, The Failure of the Privatisation of the Adelaide Remand Centre, details years of systemic failures and security breaches while finding the prison now costs more per inmate than comparable publicly operated facilities including Yatala Labour Prison and Port Augusta Prison.
Among the report's findings:
The cost per prisoner at the ARC now exceeds publicly run prisons.
Daily correctional officer staffing levels fell from around 70 officers to approximately 20 following privatisation.
Assaults on staff and prisoners have doubled over the past five years, including 12 assaults on officers in 2023-24.
Major security incidents have included the 2020 prison escape, the theft of more than $100,000 from the prison safe by a senior manager, and a January 2026 incident where 10 grams of cocaine bypassed screening processes.
The report recommends the South Australian Government commit to returning the ARC to public operation through a structured 18-month transition period alongside enforceable minimum staffing ratios.
Public Service Association General Secretary Charlotte Watson, the union which covers correctional officers said the findings confirmed longstanding warnings raised by prison staff.
"This report proves what our members have been saying for years: privatising prisons skims profit at the direct expense of proper staffing and safety. The multinational experiment at the Adelaide Remand Centre has been a total disaster," said Ms Watson.
"You have a private operator flying in staff from New Zealand and Western Australia just to keep the doors open. You have massive quantities of cocaine gliding through reception. What more do you need to see to know the system is broken?
"We need this facility back in public hands immediately. Publicly run prisons are safer for our correctional officers, they offer better rehabilitation for inmates, and they ensure genuine accountability to the South Australian community."
The report's author, Hannah MacLeod, said the report demonstrated the privatisation model had failed fundamentally.
"The evidence is clear. The privatisation of the Adelaide Remand Centre has fundamentally failed to deliver efficiency, safety, or value for money for South Australians. What we are seeing are not isolated incidents, but the predictable outcomes of a structural model that prioritises cost containment in a labour-intensive, safety-critical environment.
"We've found that the minor savings achieved come entirely at the expense of leaner staffing models. This chronic understaffing has severely compromised prisoner rehabilitation, extended lockdowns, and created a volatile environment that puts both staff and inmates at unacceptable risk.
"The Government would be wise to use the imminent contract expiry to restore safe, accountable, and effective public operation of the facility."
