Corrections Victoria is the Victorian government department established in 2003, responsible for Victoria's corrections system. Corrections Victoria manages approximately 50 Community Correctional Centres in Victoria and is also responsible for the management of the states public prisons as well as overseeing the contracts of privately operated prisons. It is part of the Department of Justice.
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Corrections Victoria manages Victoria's 11 public prisons.
Private Prisons
On October 29, 1987, prisoners detained in the high security Jika Jika unit of Pentridge Prison, were dissatisfied with inhumane conditions in the unit. They began to seal off doors to their cells using a tennis net and bedding. Windows were covered with paper so the prison officers were unable to identify which prisoners were causing damage. Once out of view of the staff, one or more of the prisoners started a fire inside the unit.
The prisoners emptied water from the S bend of the toilets in their cells in order to access fresh air from the pipes. They had planned to use wet blankets to cover their heads whilst attempting to breathe the small amount of air in the sewage plumbing system. Smoke rapidly filled the unit. Jika Jika unit was completely free of any fresh air whatsoever, as it was a climate-controlled division. In spite of the prisoners' attempts to avoid the thick, toxic black smoke by breathing through the plumbing, prisoners Robert Wright, Jimmy Loughnan, Arthur Gallagher, David McGauley and Ricky Morris died in the fire. Minogue and three other prisoners survived. All four spent days on ventilators recovering in the prison hospital.
Attorney General and Minister for Corrections Jim Kennan immediately ordered the closure of the Jika Jika maximum security section of Pentridge Prison thereafter saying: "The level of deaths in Jika Jika has become unacceptable".
None of the surviving prisoners were charged with any offences. In the ensuing coronial inquest into the deaths in the fire Minogue gave evidence over three days. At the completion of the inquest the State Coroner found Corrections Victoria was, in his words, "moribund and corrupt".