Jail taking in Goulburn inmates won't get more staff, inquest told

The head of a southern New South Wales jail has told an inquest there are no plans for more staff, despite his centre taking another 100 inmates from Goulburn.

Junee Correctional Centre governor Troy Seychelles made the comment on Wednesday during an inquest into the death of former inmate Alexander Gavranic.

In March, the state government announced it would be closing four Victorian-era wings of the Goulburn jail by the end of September, with prisoners to be relocated to Junee and the Clarence Correctional Centre in northern NSW.

"We were at a maximum of 714 [inmates]; as of Monday [it] increased to 944," Mr Seychelles said.

"Goulburn Centre is closing at the end of the week; [a] majority of those inmates have been decanted to my centre."

Mr Seychelles told the inquest the prison has the capacity to house around 1,200 inmates, but there were no plans for further resourcing. 

"My establishment is essentially set."

In a statement to the ABC, a spokeswoman for Corrective Services NSW said 14 correctional officers had started at Junee. 

"Junee Correctional Centre is a mixed-security facility with capacity for more inmates than it currently holds, and the transfer of inmates from Goulburn will help bring it up to capacity," the spokeswoman said. 

System in crisis

The three-day inquest overseen by deputy state coroner Derek Lee examined the referral pathways available to inmates at Junee Correctional Centre and the circumstances that led to the death of 40-year-old Mr Gavranic, who died in his cell by suicide in February 2023.

At the time of his death, the jail was run privately by the GEO Group. In April last year, the NSW government took over management of the facility.

Over the course of the inquest, the Coroner's Court heard Mr Gavranic kept a diary with contemporaneous notes of his interactions with staff at the centre, including requests to see the mental health unit.

The court heard  Mr Gavranic did not receive an initial mental health assessment during his 19 months in the jail, and at the time of his death two mental health nurses were responsible for 400 inmates awaiting mental health care.

It was heard that Mr Gavranic was on day 309 of a mental health waitlist at the time of his death.

Bernadette Barton, a mental health nurse at the centre, told the court she and her counterpart would have to prioritise inmates needing urgent attention, and would often not get to non-urgent enquiries.

"We barely scratched the surface; we didn't get to everybody that we wanted to, or everybody that we tried to," she said

Barrister Matthew Hutchings, who represented Mr Gavranic's family, asked Justice Health clinical operations manager Adam Vance if the jail's switch from a private to public facility had resulted in an increase in custodial workforce. 

"We got like-for-like that we were funded to provide," he said. 

"It's well documented [that] health care demand in custody exceeds the need available; it doesn't meet the demand."

In his closing statement, Mr Hutchings endorsed counsel assisting the coroner Alison Storm's recommendation for improved pathways and transparency within the prison system for accessing mental health support. 

However, he described it as "truly a system in crisis."

"What difference is it going to make if there are better pathways or notifications, if it doesn't carry with it an availability of services for people such as Alex in the prison system?" Mr Hutchings said.

A family statement read to the court described Mr Gravanic as larger than life and devoted to his family. 

"We hope lessons are learned from what happened to him so another family does not have to experience what we have," the statement said.