During 2023 and 2024 we completed an inspection that looked at all three centres located on the LBCC complex. The Inspection of the Long Bay Correctional Complex report (PDF, 8.8 MB)was tabled in NSW Parliament on 4 December 2025. The media release for the report can be accessed here (PDF, 61.2 KB).
The Long Bay Correctional Complex (LBCC) includes three correctional centres- Long Bay Hospital (LBH), the Special Purpose Centre (SPC) and the Metropolitan Special Programs Centre (MSPC). The LBCC is located in Matraville 15 kms south of the Sydney CBD. MSPC includes some of the oldest correctional infrastructure still in use in NSW, dating back to 1909.
The correctional centres comprising the Long Bay Correctional Complex have varied purposes and functions and consequently hold a very diverse inmate population with wide ranging, and often high, needs. This population includes significant numbers of people with disability, people with serious mental illness, people who are aged and frail, people experiencing ill health and terminal illness, and LGBTIQA+ people. It also includes people undertaking intensive programs to address serious sex and violent offending.
LBH has two distinct areas. LBH 1 is a modern, secure, fit for purpose hospital-style facility consisting of a declared mental health unit, medical unit and an aged care unit. LBH 2 is an older facility, currently used to hold remand inmates. We inspected LBH for the first time in 2015 for the Old and Inside: Managing Aged Offenders in Custody report. We then inspected it in 2018 for the Health Services in NSW report.
Since our last inspection, a separate gazetted correctional facility called the Special Purpose Centre has been integrated into the management structure of LBH and is now known as Area 3 (LBH 3). SPC was previously inspected in 2018 as part of the Programs, Employment and Education report.
The facility now known as MSPC opened in 1909. It consists of three areas – MSPC 1 (maximum security), MSPC 2 (maximum and minium security units) and MSPC 3 (minimum security). The age of the centre is evident in almost every inmate and staff area.
We inspected MSPC for the first time in 2014 for the Full House: The Growth of the inmate population in NSW report. It was then inspected in 2015 for the Old and Inside: Managing Aged Offenders in Custody report, and then in 2018 as part of the Programs, Employment and Education report..
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