New privately operated prison announced by NT government

The NT government has announced plans for a new 1,200-bed men's prison that will be built, financed and operated by a private company.

The proposal also includes plans for a 200-bed women's facility that will be operated by the Department of Corrections.

The NT's treasury department will begin a formal EOI process, with a successful applicant to be selected by the end of 2027.

The Northern Territory government has announced plans for a new prison that will be built and operated by a private company.

In a statement this morning, the Chief Minster's office said the 1,200-bed men's "remand and intake centre" and 200-bed women's facility would be built adjacent to the existing Darwin Correctional Precinct at Holtze, which sits on Darwin's outskirts.

The government said the men's prison would be delivered under the "tried and tested Public Private Partnership" whereby the private partner would "design, finance, build, operate and maintain the facility".

The statement added the women's facility would be "delivered by government as a design and construct tender" and operated by the Department of Corrections.

Treasurer Bill Yan said a business case has been completed and will be published as part of the expression of interest process, which will go out over the next week.

"It's very, very important to know that the business case for this has been extremely rigorous and involved information and input from stakeholders, both within corrections and from within industry," he said.

"There will be no cost to the Territory on construction and design — that cost will be borne by the proponent and there'll be no risk to the people of the Northern Territory."

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said the corrections system had been neglected for a decade and was unable to keep up with demand.

"We've completely reformed the correction system, empowered them as a standalone agency to make sure community safety remains our number one priority, that we're rehabilitating prisoners, educating prisoners and supporting them post-release into work," she said.

NT Corrections Minister Gerard Maley said the government had been developing the master plan for corrections over the past two years.

"When this facility is open, there will be 1,200 beds for the men, the dedicated 200 beds for women, and that's going to help us to be able to deliver more training programs," he said.