The ACT opposition has claimed the announcement of a $54 million expansion for the Alexander Maconochie Centre prison is simply "fixing the mistakes of the past".
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Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury announced the significant upgrade to the prison on Tuesday, which is expected to add 110 beds in two new cell blocks to the prison.
The extra beds will add to the 366 beds currently in the facility, as the government looks to cope with a prison population that has surged to unprecedented levels since January last year.
At the same time, a justice reform strategy will be developed by Mr Rattenbury and Attorney-General Simon Corbell, to try to prevent people from going to prison in the first place.
But Shadow Corrections Minister Andrew Wall said the expansion of the prison would not have been necessary if the ACT Government followed advice it was provided more than a decade ago.
That advice estimated the ACT would eventually experience the number of detainees the Alexander Maconochie Centre is now trying to house.
"If the advice the government was given as far back as 2001 was followed, and the prison was built in accordance with the professional's recommendation on the size, we wouldn't be here today spending $54 million to expand the prison," Mr Wall said.
"All today's announcement is really doing is going back and fixing the mistakes of the past."
Mr Wall said he recognised the need to do something about relieving the overcrowding pressures the prison is facing.
"The overcrowding and capacity issues that exist there are certainly concerning," he said.
But he described the costs of the new cells as exorbitant, describing it as "gold-plated".
Mr Wall also expressed doubts about whether the government could build the new cell blocks on time and within budget.
"The original jail was $20 million over budget, just today they've announced something as small as a beach volleyball court is going to cost a further quarter of a million dollars to build," he said.
The first 30 cell block, designed as a specialist care facility, is expected to be complete by mid-2015.
The larger 56 cell block is hoped to be ready by mid-2016.
