Prisoner Support and Treatment

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (14:40): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking questions of the Minister for Correctional Services regarding prisons, offenders and services and support for offenders including people who are living in prisons.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: Last month I asked questions of the minister in relation to people incarcerated in prisons due to a lack of access to appropriate housing, and concerns surrounding services and supports provided to people with cognitive disabilities and mental illness, in particular, in our prisons. I am yet to receive an answer to those questions, but I can inform the chamber that in the meantime I have had a range of phone calls to my office from individuals and advocacy groups, confirming that the issues I have raised in this place are unfortunately but a tiny snapshot of an enormous challenge we have around former prisoners and their accommodation, employment and support services for offenders and their families.

It has come to my attention that there are estimated to be more than 200 South Australians who have completed their prison terms and are awaiting release, yet remain in prison due to a lack of suitable housing. I have also been told of the scant programs and resources being provided to prisoners and their families, both while they are in prison and post release.

Additionally, I have been informed of many cases where prisoners appear not to have any support being provided around their disability or mental illness. Meanwhile there is overcrowding in our prisons and the 'tough on crime' policy of this government is resulting in ever increasing prison numbers in the state. So my questions to the minister are:

1. Can the minister confirm that there are more than 200 prisoners living in our prisons today, at a cost of $86,000 per person, per year, who have completed their sentences and have been approved for parole but remain in prison due to lack of appropriate support?

2 (a) Is the minister aware that several weeks ago a prisoner was released from Yatala prison with only 10 minutes' notice, with no formal release plan in place?

(b) In this case, is the minister aware that Corrections could not locate this man's clothing, so he was released still is his prison uniform?

(c) While in this case the prisoner was picked up by family members, is the minister concerned that without organised release plans in place prisoners are at risk of homelessness or reoffending and other undesirable outcomes?

3 (a) What programs are in place in our prisons to ensure prisoners can rehabilitate and reintegrate into their community as much as possible, and their families, and gain employment upon their release?

(b) How much recurrent annual funding is devoted to funding these programs?

4 (a) What programs is the minister currently funding to support prisoners on release from prison to prevent reoffending?

(b) How much recurrent funding is in place for those programs?

5. What action is the minister undertaking currently to ensure that other government departments and offices such as housing, health, education and disability liaise and work constructively with the corrections department to ensure the best and most holistic outcome for all offenders?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:43): I thank the honourable member for her important questions on a subject that is very much close to my heart, and becoming increasingly so. There are a number of questions outlined in the honourable member's question. Of course, what I will do is I will take many of them on notice in respect of some specifics and come back to her. Allow me to attempt to answer the question hopefully in a way that is satisfactory to the honourable member and deals with a subject that she raises broadly.

First, the honourable member rightly points out the extraordinary cost of incarceration in South Australia, although the cost of incarcerating a prisoner in South Australia is very much comparable, in fact in some instances cheaper, with what we see in other jurisdictions around the country. It is, nevertheless, a very large figure—somewhere in the order of $70,000 to $100,000, depending on the prison they are at and the level of security around them that is required—an extraordinary figure.

When you marry up that figure with the fact that we still have, depending on which measure you use, a reoffending rate in South Australia that is somewhere in the order of 48 per cent of those people exiting the system, it is extraordinary. While both these numbers are better than many of our comparable counterparts in other jurisdictions around the country, it is still not good enough, and in my view something that is in need of great improvement.

The honourable member quite rightly outlined why. One of the reasons we should be seeking to address this is of course the fact that our prisons are becoming increasingly full, something for which I will not apologise. This government does not have an intention to depart from our tough on crime stance. We have seen a reduction in crime in South Australia for the better part of a decade that has been very substantial, and much of that is attributable to this government's sincere commitment to being tough on crime and supporting SAPOL.

What I am very keen to do is make sure that, once people are incarcerated under the law and they fall into the custody of the state, we do everything we can to rehabilitate them. Just as importantly, once they are released, we need to provide them with the services they need in order to maximise the likelihood of their avoiding reoffending and being incarcerated again.

It was recently drawn to my attention anecdotally, by talking with people in the sector, that release times are not always convenient and sometimes do lead to a hurried release that might otherwise appear to be a lack of preparedness around it for the person in custody. When you actually drill down and ask why that is the case, there are often good reasons for it. There are approaching 3,000 people within the correctional services system, and release dates are a rather complex question, about when release becomes approved by the Parole Board and other such bodies.

There is a lot of merit in ensuring that we are doing everything we can so that people are released towards the beginning of the day rather than at the end, because it allows access to basic amenities. It is fair to say (and I have identified this in a number of forums at which I have already spoken) that one of the things that can be done in order to decrease the likelihood of recidivism or reoffending is what happens post custody.

Already the Department for Correctional Services puts a lot of effort into rehabilitating people while they are in custody, but there is a need to have a good look at what we do post custody. There are a range of not-for-profit organisations that provide services in this area, as the state cannot do everything on its own. A range of not-for-profits do provide outstanding services—OARS is a good example of such an organisation.

But, I do think that we want to continue to work collaboratively with organisations like that so that we can be doing everything we can to give people, once they are released having served their time, the best chance of making a positive contribution rather than reoffending and ending up back incarcerated at substantial expense to the state.

With regard to the specifics, like the 200 people and the gentleman who was released in his prison attire, to whom the honourable member referred, and other such questions raised, I am happy to take them on notice and come back with an answer as quickly as I possibly can.