Adelaide Pre-release Centre

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Correctional Services. Can the minister advise the house about the recent visit by His Excellency the Governor-General and Lady Cosgrove to the Adelaide Pre-release Centre on Monday 20 June 2016?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:01): I thank the honourable member for her question. I was very honoured earlier this week, on Monday, to meet His Excellency the Governor-General of Australia, the Hon. Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove, who came to the Adelaide Pre-release Centre this week. This was quite an honour for a number of people, including myself, but particularly for the staff and those who are associated with the Adelaide Pre-release Centre. It was an outstanding opportunity to speak to someone with a national perspective on the corrections system.

It was clear from my time with His Excellency that he has a real passion for rehabilitation and reintegration programs and the incredible good they can bring. David Brown, the chief executive of the Department for Correctional Services, the APC General Manager and I led a tour of the centre for His Excellency, showcasing some of the initiatives running at the Adelaide Pre-release Centre (or the APC).

The APC was established in 1984 and is South Australia's main pre-release facility for male and female prisoners. The prison is located within the Northfield precinct and has the capacity to accommodate 80 low-security male prisoners and 24 low-security female prisoners in cottage-style accommodation. Prisoners at the APC are generally in there for the last 12 to 24 months of their sentence, and are able to participate in accompanied and unaccompanied family leave and education programs, as well as, critically, work release and community service programs.

Male and female prisoners may face many barriers on the road to successful reintegration back into the community beyond the nature of their original offending, simply by virtue of being imprisoned. While Corrections can offer support to prisoners to gain or improve marketable skills, securing employment prior to or just after release has been shown to be one important component in overcoming the key challenge when exiting prison, namely, staying out of prison. This is obviously of critical importance to the individual seeking reintegration within society, but it is also important to our community as a whole, because when a former prisoner falls back into committing crimes there is a substantial cost associated with that. There is a social cost to the community as more people become victims, and there is a financial cost to the taxpayer as our budget needs are substantial as we need to spend more money on incarceration.

A united approach to pre and post release training and employment improves a prisoner's motivation to go straight because there is a light at the end of the tunnel by means of providing financial support to themselves and indeed, occasionally, to their family. A number of prisoners in South Australian prisons who work in prison-based industries also attend specialised programs, vocational training and education courses. It is not just specific to the APC, though there is a strong emphasis here given that these prisoners are nearing the end of their sentence.

Examples of vocational training include getting a white card, first aid, welding, traffic management, WHS, agri-foods, forklift, working at heights, computer courses, learning to drive and other qualifications that may be required, depending on the prisoner's particular employment focus. Applying these skills and qualifications in the Prison Industries workplace and not just in the classroom has shown to be highly effective and helps prisoners to be work ready on their way to paid employment.

There are a number of things that we know from enormous amounts of experience and research that shows us that if a prisoner is able to achieve three key things post their release, the likelihood of them reoffending dramatically reduces. One of those things is access to housing post their release; the second is the quality of support they can get from family and friends and the positive influence they can have upon an ex-prisoner to prevent them from reoffending; but the third thing, and this is A1 critical to ensure they are not likely to reoffend, is the likelihood of having a job.

If a prisoner comes out of prison and is able to become an employee the likelihood of them reoffending dramatically reduces. So much of the work that is done at the APC is orientated toward giving that ex-prisoner the chance to be able to get a job and all the dignity that comes with employment. That is why the work that is done at the APC is so critical. The APC has partnerships with a whole range of organisations in order to be able to achieve this objective.

I learned about one of these on Monday with Seaview Joinery that has a work release program. The Governor-General and I met a man on Monday who now has paid employment at Seaview Joinery. Seaview Joinery has done a great thing by employing this individual and giving him a new lease on life and the pride and the dignity that this gentleman could talk of as a result of employment that he has was nothing short of inspirational. This gentleman now has his life very much on track and has been out of prison for a number of years.

These are the stories that we want to replicate. Other partnerships are with Cleland Wildlife Park, the South Australian Amateur Football League—that has a program which we are working on and which I am looking forward to talking about more in the future—the National Parks Program, and Housing SA has a restoration program, and there are others. These are the critical works that I found incredibly inspiring as I learnt more about it as time went on.

Just as equally, the Governor-General of the nation was utterly impressed with the work that goes on with the APC. He was very quick and keen to congratulate all the work that is going on in that centre. We want to take those congratulations on and use it as a source of inspiration to continue to enhance the model that we are working on at the APC and we want to continue to see it developed into the future.