SBC-ME PROGRAM

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for Correctional Services. Can the minister inform the house of the newly developed behavioural program for imprisoned sex offenders?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Correctional Services) (14:26): I would like to thank the honourable member for his question and his keen interest in all things corrections. I am pleased to inform the house of a new program that has been developed by the staff of the rehabilitation programs branch of the Department for Correctional Services. The sexual behaviour clinic 'me' program was developed in response to staff recognition of the need to address sex offending amongst prisoners with cognitive deficits.

Prisoners with intellectual and learning disabilities are considered unsuitable for the standardised sexual behaviour clinic program. This new program, SBC-me, will be piloted at Mount Gambier Prison from this week. SBC-me is a 14-month treatment program for adult male sexual offenders. The overall—

The Hon. R.B. Such interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: No, he certainly does not. He is an upstanding member of the Mount Gambier community. The overall aim of the program is to reduce reoffending rates by assisting offenders to understand their offending cycle and by teaching them skills to cease offending behaviour. Offenders who are identified as having a mild to borderline level of intellectual intelligence and have been assessed as being at moderate to high risk of sexual reoffending will be eligible to participate in the SBC-me program. Program groups will contain a maximum of eight participants.

This program will be delivered by a Department for Correctional Services senior clinician, together with Disability SA staff members. With these staff, offenders will work through a series of eight modules designed to assist them to recognise the reasons for their offending, learn about the impact of sexual abuse on victims and teach them, most importantly, self-management skills to prevent future reoffending.

SBC-me is just another example of this government's commitment to rehabilitating the community's worst offenders. I remind the house that it was this Labor government which introduced the sexual behaviour clinic in 2005. It is this Labor government which has boosted spending on rehabilitation programs to $32.4 million in the recent budget and achieved the lowest reoffend rate in the nation, lower than the West Australian Liberal government, lower than the Victorian Liberal government, and lower than the New South Wales Liberal government at a 30.2 per cent rate.

The Hon. I.F. Evans: It has been there six months!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: We have had this record for a period of years. It is this government which will continue to support the implementation of new programs as they are developed. The development of programs such as this proves the calibre of the staff we have in the Department for Correctional Services. They identified a need within the system and have developed a program to fulfil that need. I want to take this opportunity to commend the staff for their efforts and thank them for their commitment to the rehabilitation of offenders and the safety of the South Australian community.