The former Grafton Gaol, later called the Grafton Correctional Centre and then Grafton Intake and Transient Centre is a heritage-listed former medium security prison for males and females, located in , Clarence Valley Council, New South Wales, Australia. The centre was operated by Corrective Services NSW an agency of the Department of Attorney General and Justice of the Government of New South Wales. In its last correctional use, the centre detained sentenced and unsentenced felons under New South Wales and/or Commonwealth legislation. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
The current Grafton Gaol complex is the third gaol to be constructed to serve the town of Grafton. Correctional 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. During the early 1890s, the design of public buildings was not automatically given to the Government Architect, but was open to competition. Sydney architect Henry Austin Wilshire won the Grafton Gaol competition with a design following trends already evident in the gaols designed by the Colonial Architect. The design consisted of a square compound, with brick walls, with an elaborate gatehouse, featuring a machicolated parapet, a sandstone archway and elaborate panelled doors. The gaol was built by the Holloway Bros. and proclaimed on 8 September 1893. Prisoners were transferred to the new facility in November of the same year.
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):
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 May 1992. The gaol's name was changed to the Grafton Correctional Centre.
Recent developments
Inmates from the centre make padded, waterproof Street Swags, distributed by national charities to alleviate the hardship of homelessness.
In June 2010 an inmate was found bleeding to death in his cell. He died several days later in a Brisbane hospital. Serving time for traffic offences, a coronial inquest heard that threats were made against the prisoner's life by his cellmate whose sleep was disturbed by snoring. Prison officials were criticised when CCTV footage revealed that the inmate's calls for help were ignored by prison officers and the officers failed to render first aid.
In 2011 there was contention over the future of Grafton Correctional Centre, with some suggesting its closure or privatisation. The women's wing was shut in November 2011, with female inmates transferred to the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre. In June 2012 the O'Farrell government decided to downgrade the facility and the centre now houses up to 64 inmates who are taken into custody or are currently in custody and need to attend court in the Northern Rivers region.
The new nearby Clarence Correctional Centre officially opened on 25 July 2020, with all inmates transferred out of the Grafton Gaol.