Deer Park Metropolitan Women's Correctional Centre (MWCC) was built in 1996 as the first privately designed, financed and operated prison in Victoria.

[2][3] The prison was the subject of intense scrutiny from its opening, as a result of incidents including self-harm and what the Victorian Corrections Commissioner described as "a failure to have adequate suicide prevention protocols in place".

[3][5] The centre was renamed after welfare worker and philanthropist Dame Phyllis Frost,[3][5] who was well known for her commitment to unpopular causes, most notably helping women prisoners.

After lengthy court action, documents from the filing cabinet were released and revealed allegations of corruption and sexual abuse at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.

[8] In November 2009, it was reported in the media that heroin and methamphetamine were "readily available" in the jail and that there had been a large increase in drug overdoses and suicide attempts among inmates at the prison.