PRISON authorities are working on a system of benchmarking that will cover public and private jails in NSW, says an academic working in the field.

Professor with the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, Gary Sturgess, chairs an interdepartmental committee advising the NSW Government on the reform of prisons.

In an opinion piece in The Daily Telegraph last week, Prof Sturgess said the controversy around the recent dramatic footage out of Parklea Correctional Centre, that showed an inmate filming contraband he claimed had been smuggled in by officers, missed the point.

He said Corrective Services NSW ordered a public prison governor and team to review Parklea's operations, but the story would not have shocked any of the state's prison officers. They know that despite the best efforts they fail to keep contraband out of prisons.

"What may surprise the public is that in NSW, we don't have (and have never had) clear and consistent measures of how each prison is performing in controlling contraband, drug use, or a range of other factors critical to a centre's safety and security,” Prof Sturgess said.

"This was highlighted by the Auditor-General last year: 'CSNSW did not set clear KPIs or targets for public correctional centre general managers. As a result, general managers were unclear about ... expectations, individual centre performance could not be assessed, and it is difficult to vary performance expectations in response to changing operating environments'.”

He said this had led to the NSW Government introducing a program of benchmarking.

"Under benchmarking, for the first time, all prisons - public and private - will have clear and consistent performance standards by which they are measured,” Prof Sturgess said.

"Along with presence of contraband and illicit drug use by inmates, prisons will be measured on assaults, self-harm and time-out-of-cell and programs for inmates.

"For the first time, the results of individual prisons will be published.”

Prof Sturgess said the ultimate point of these reforms was a stronger prison system focused on better outcomes and value for money.

Consultation is under way with local managers and staff to ensure that each prison will be resourced according to inmate numbers, security classification and operations, to achieve the desired outcomes.