Naveed Akram, the accused gunman charged over the Bondi Beach mass shooting, has been transferred from a Sydney prison hospital to the state’s highest security jail, a move the NSW government says is reserved for inmates assessed as posing the greatest risk.
The ABC reported Akram was moved on Monday from the prison hospital at Long Bay where he had been held for about a fortnight after being shot by police.
He faces 59 charges including 15 counts of murder and an allegation of committing a terrorist act, over the December 14 attack at Bondi Beach. The other alleged gunman, Akram’s father Sajid Akram was shot dead by police.
A NSW government spokesperson said the High Risk Management Correctional Centre at Goulburn, commonly referred to as Supermax and the most secure prison in the state and is equipped to hold people who present the highest levels of risk.
The spokesperson said community safety remained the government’s top priority and Corrective Services took its obligations in managing serious offenders incredibly seriously.
While authorities rarely spell out the operational reasons for an individual transfer, Corrective Services NSW sets out the categories of inmates the Goulburn facility is designed to hold.
On its public description of the centre, Corrective Services says the High Risk Management Correctional Centre is purpose built for male inmates assessed as an extreme risk to the safety and security of other prisons, a serious escape threat, detained under national security provisions or considered high public profile.
That definition helps explain why a high profile terrorism remand prisoner can end up at Goulburn even before a trial has been finalised.
The alleged Bondi Beach offender is facing charges at the most serious end of the spectrum with a prosecution now being run by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions after a referral from the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team.
The CDPP has confirmed the charges include one count of committing a terrorist act under Commonwealth law and 15 murder counts under NSW law alongside other alleged offences.
The timing of Monday’s move also reflects how custody arrangements often evolve as a prisoner’s condition and risk profile changes.
Akram had been held at Long Bay’s prison hospital after leaving acute medical care and was transferred once he could be managed in a standard correctional setting under tighter security controls.
Transfers between prisons are not ad hoc. Corrective Services placement policy describes prisoner placement and transfer decisions as an exercise of statutory power with transfers made under section 23 of the Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act and subject to mandatory factors set out in regulation.
The same policy notes placement decisions can only be made by the commissioner or an authorised delegate underlining that moves of high profile inmates are handled at senior levels rather than at the discretion of an individual jail.
The Goulburn Supermax system also sits at the centre of a long running public policy argument about how to manage the small cohort of inmates considered too dangerous, disruptive or sensitive to be housed in mainstream prison units.
Corrective Services noted that supermax regimes rely on extreme security and control and can raise questions about mental health, human rights and whether rehabilitation pathways remain possible for the highest risk prisoners.
For now, Akram remains on remand as the case progresses through the courts. The CDPP says the brief of evidence is due by April 8 and the matter is next listed in mid February for a review of suppression orders.
