Private prison operator Serco has been given access to a Queensland state-run jail to promote a new women's prison, according to prisoner advocacy group Sisters Inside.

The group has had word that transfers to the new women's prison could begin next week, and is calling on the Queensland Premier to step in and stop the transfers.

The Southern Queensland Correctional Centre at Gatton, which is 100 kilometres west of Brisbane, was originally designed to be used as a women's prison, but later became a men's prison.

In recent months, male inmates have been rehomed to other prisons to make way for women.

The privately run 350-cell maximum security women's jail will extend the number of female inmates in Queensland to over 1,000 across seven jails — five in the south-east, and two in the state's north.

Serco's human rights record under the spotlight

Debbie Kilroy from Sisters Inside said this would be the first women's prison in the world under Serco control.

She is very concerned about Serco's human rights record, and what she sees as a lack of accountability.

"It runs a number of detention centres ... [including] the Yarl's Wood detention centre in the United Kingdom, where women have said that they have been physically and sexually assaulted by staff," Ms Kilroy said.

"We're also concerned about a private corporation hiding behind commercial-in-confidence; because it is not a state-run prison, it will not be open and accountable to taxpayers."

Queensland Corrective Services Minister Mark Ryan has responded by saying that any issues of concern regarding Serco are being dealt with.

But Ms Kilroy said those discussions were happening behind closed doors.

"We can't even see the contract that Serco and the Government have signed together," she told RN Breakfast.

The Southern Queensland Correctional Centre, a high-security prison on the outskirts of Gatton, west of Brisbane. ( ABC News: Donna Field )

There is uncertainty about exactly what is happening with the contract.

Serco was the operator while it was a men's prison.

Late last month, Mr Ryan suspended the tender process for the new contract on the recommendation of the Crime and Corruption Commission, which is currently examining the risk of corruption in the state's jails.

Serco says it has never marketed the new prison to any prisoners

Ms Kilroy said Serco had been marketing the new prison to inmates of the state-run Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre at Wacol.

She said it was "outrageous" that a private company had access to inmates inside a state prison.

"Corrective Services has sent newsletters out to stakeholders to state that Serco is inside Brisbane Women's [Correctional Centre], running information sessions and doing mentoring to ensure that the transfer of women coming from Brisbane Women's [Centre] to Gatton runs smoothly," she said.

"So they're rolling out a red carpet for the women that they want to come into their prison, and getting women to sign up under their own volition."

Serco has responded, stating it has never marketed the new prison to any prisoners; that the claim is false.

The company said it had attended information sessions which had been conducted by the department, and that when invited it had answered questions about the facility.

Serco said is had no say at all about who might be moved to the new prison and cannot sign anyone up.

But Ms Kilroy said that was not what the women were telling Sisters Inside.

"The women are telling us that Serco staff are talking to them and they're signing papers, documents, to say that they're happy to transfer across," she said.

She said she had not seen the papers.

"The women have no other access to anybody else from the free world — not Sisters Inside, not legal services, not any other support services — to give them a different view of what the prison would be and that it's a private run prison," Ms Kilroy said.

"It's actually narrow, single-focused marketing because only Serco is allowed in there to do that."

Ms Kilroy has concerns about the effect that could have on inmates' decision making.

"The women ... are only getting one-sided information, and that one-sided information is from Serco and Corrective Services, it seems," she said.

Serco provided a brief written response, stating that it has contracted to the Queensland Government, so any interview would need to be with the Corrective Services Commissioner, or the Minister.

A spokesman for Mr Ryan declined an interview and in a statement Mr Ryan said:

"Southern Queensland Correctional Centre is in the process of becoming a women's prison. This was the purpose for which it was originally designed. It's timely because the government has been considering the best operating models for prisons in Queensland. We want to make the best decision, one that reflects recent advice from the CCC that the current tender process for the two privately runs prisons should be placed on hold in light of Taskforce Flaxton."

Female prisoner numbers climbing

Queensland is struggling to manage prison overcrowding.

Men's prisons are operating 135 per cent above capacity and women's prisons are 165 per cent above capacity.

Nationally, female incarceration numbers are at record highs and climbing, and a disproportionate number of women being locked up around the country are Indigenous.

Jackie Huggins is the co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, which shares the concerns Sisters Inside has about Queensland's new private women's prison.

"I think we need to err on the side of caution here," she said.

Ms Huggins said a different approach was needed nationally, and building more prisons was not the answer.

"We represent 3 per cent of the Australian population, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women make up 34 per cent of the female prison population," Ms Huggins said.

"Why do we have to keep feeding people into prison? ... [There's been] a 148 per cent increase in our women being imprisoned since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991.

"Now that's an incredible figure and I think there should be other options and measures to avoid this."

Ms Huggins said recent research had shed light on the causational factors that lead women to be incarcerated, showing a link between child sexual assault, drug addiction and criminality for Aboriginal women in prison.

"In New South Wales there was a staggering 70 per cent of women who had experienced some form of child abuse, 70 per cent had been sexually assaulted as children, and 75 per cent were victims of domestic violence," she said.

Further impacting on the community is the fact that 80 per cent of Aboriginal women in prisons are mothers, Ms Huggins said.

"Babies are born in prison, and young children grow up with mothers in prison," she said.

"It's a very sad story and something has to be done to look at these issues instead of putting women in prison."