HM Melbourne Assessment Prison (previously known as Melbourne Remand Centre)

Full description

HM Melbourne Assessment Prison (MAP) faciity provides statewide assessment and orientation services for all male prisoners received into the prison system.

It was operated by the Department of Justice, Corrections Victoria.

HM Melbourne Assessment Prison was a maximum security prison. The operational capacity was 277, the total number of places available in which to house prisoners (as at 2008).

Accommodation included:
- units with different roles or functions such as protection or workforce,
- a 15-bed, psychiatric facility, the Acute Assessment Unit, catering for all of the state's male prisoners.

Where possible, prisoners with similar status, such as remand or sentenced, were accommodated together.

History
Planning for the Melbourne Assessment Prison began in 1974, with construction in December 1983. It was completed in 1989 and cost $80 million. The prison was officially opened on 6 April 1989, and received its first prisoners on 29 May 1989. Previously the Melbourne Remand Centre, the prison was originally built to accommodate remand prisoners. In 1997 the prison became the reception prison for all male prisoners in Victoria.

It comes under the purview of the Department of Justice, Corrections division.

In circa 1997, when Pentridge Prison (VA 863) closed, the Metropolitan Reception Prison (VA 4107) relocated from Pentridge Prison to HM Melbourne Assessment Prison, which was then known as Melbourne Remand Centre.