Van death security firm wins new contract
originally published:
4th October 2009
A private company has won a new five-year contract to transport prisoners in Victoria, despite being implicated in the death of a man in custody early last year.
A coroner found the private security company, G4S, contributed to the death of 46-year-old Mr Ward, who died of heat stroke during a 360 kilometre journey in Western Australia early last year. Company spokesman Tim Hall says the incident involved the misconduct of two escort officers, and does not mean the company is unfit to transport prisoners in another state.
He says it transports prisoners in Victoria in one of the most modern and safe fleets in the world. “The fact that two escort officers travelling in the desert in Western Australia wilfully disobeyed an instruction every two hours had tragic consequences,” he said. “But to try to construe from this that the company, which employed them is unfit to transport prisoners in Victoria 4,000 kilometres away just defies commonsense.”
Corrections Victoria has released a statement saying the new prison transport vehicles are state-of-the-art and have been purpose-built to meet the highest safety standards.
The department says the contract outlines strict operational criteria and will be rigorously scrutinised in line with standard process. It says G4S won the prison transport contact in a competitive tender process.
