Wellington Correctional Centre has reopened, nine months after it was closed due to a "horrendous" mice plague.
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The opening of the centre is being deemed Wellington 2.0, after the investment of more than $50 million to repair damaged caused to the site from the mouse plague.
In June 2021, up to 200 staff and 420 inmates were transferred to nine other prisons across NSW, after mice chewed thorough internal wiring and destroyed the ceiling, air conditioning and wall panels.
For the health and safety of staff and inmates the prisoners were transferred in just 10 days.
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During a tour the Daily Liberal was told about mice droppings that were falling through the ceiling onto desks, and how hundreds of dead carcases were found in the walls.
Inmates will begin returning to the centre in stages over a five-week period to ensure security.
Wellington Correctional Centre Governor Mark Kennedy praised staff for their resilience, and for rising to the challenges it posed.
"A refurbishment project was planned that would not only rid the infestation of mice and rectify the damage, but bring the centre forward to meet the standards of a new maximum security and major improvements at the centre," he said at the re-opening on Friday.
As part of the refurbishment eleven areas were targeted as a priority for rebuild - including the gate and control room, which houses the main security system and administration area.
Improvements included the centre being rodent-proofed, a new security monitor room and updates to additional security cameras across the facility, a new air conditioning unit across the centre, a new inmate bakery, and cells were repainted by local staff at the facility.
Corrective Services NSW Commissioner Kevin Corcoran explained mice were entering the site through the stormwater drains and through electrical pits - which wasn't the case with the Macquarie prison just down the road.
While that was now fixed, Commissioner Corcoran said a big investment in the project was in the centre's technology capabilities, allowing inmates to have access to electronic tablets in their cells to enable them access to information and learning, as well as making telephone calls to family members.
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State Member for Dubbo Dugald Saunders said the investment for "betterment" was a new beginning for the facility.
"I was lucky or unlucky enough to be here in the jail during the first period directly after the mouse plague and saw the devastation that had been caused by literally thousands, upon thousands of the rodents infesting every part of this facility - through the offices, through the main security rooms and even into the buy up area," he said.
"It was significant, and the stench was pretty pungent."
However, Mr Saunders said the improvements it allowed them to make were taking the facility into 2022.
"A lot has changed in terms of technology and the way that people move around a facility like this and I think all those improvements will help the feeling for staff and also for inmates."
Commissioner Corcoran praised the resilience of staff for dealing not only with the mouse plague, but also the COVID-19 outbreak in sites across NSW.
"Staff were sent around the state so that we could staff other facilities, and at great cost to themselves had to leave their families and in fact go into COVID hotspots to relieve their colleagues," he said.
"So great work on the part of staff and I want to acknowledge that."
Wellington Correctional Centre was constructed in 2007 and holds up to 592 minimum, medium and maximum prisoners, both male and female, from across Far Western NSW.