Prisoner Reoffending

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:16): My question is to the Minister for Correctional Services. Can the minister advise how the SA business community and the Department for Correctional Services are working together to reduce the rate of reoffending?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:17): Thank you, Mr President. Let me thank the honourable member for his very important question, because he asked about something that is incredibly important when it comes to the government's objective to see a 10 per cent reduction in reoffending by the year 2020.

We know that male and female prisoners can face many barriers on the road to a successful reintegration back into the community that extends far beyond their original offending. Sometimes someone commits a crime and they do their time, and that sounds simple enough, but the reality is that for many prisoners it is when they complete their sentences that many other challenges begin. There is no bigger challenge, I think, for an ex-offender or an offender coming out of prison who aims to start a new life, than finding a new job.

Having a life free from criminal activity often necessarily means achieving gainful employment and how gainful employment can prove to be critical in reducing the likelihood of that person reoffending. It is also why the APC is a facility that exists and why we have committed to providing offenders with the skills and pathways to meaningful employment, to ensure that they are able to obtain employment as they seek to reintegrate into the community.

Every prisoner in the system, with the exception of the very worst of the worst, at some point is going to be released into the community. We need to ask ourselves: do we want them to return to the community job ready, employable and skilled? The answer for this government is unequivocally yes, and that is why we have committed $9.2 million in new funding in this year state's budget to invest in a program called Work Ready, Release Ready.

The Work Ready, Release Ready program is designed to improve and enhance education and vocational training for those in prison and support securing employment upon release through a job network provider. The state government and the Department for Correctional Services cannot go it alone, and creating employment and industry partnerships with the business sector is one of the six key strategies outlined in our plan to reduce South Australia's rate of reoffending.

On 21 July, I had the pleasure of attending the Department for Correctional Services' inaugural Adelaide Pre-release Centre Employment Expo. The expo hosted 60 representatives from South Australian businesses and provided prisoners and employers alike the opportunity to showcase the skills of the prisoners as well as the needs of employers. The businesses spanned horticulture, retail, manufacturing and smallgoods and provided a unique opportunity for prisoners, businesses and prospective employers to meet.

Furthermore, the expo enabled the Pre-release Centre to build on its existing off-centre work programs and employment opportunities, preparing and upskilling offenders prior to their release in order to make their transition to community as seamless as possible, with employers who require specialised skills. I want to thank all the employers who were present at the expo on 21 July. I thank them for putting their hand up to be able to make a real difference in these peoples' lives and having the courage to give these people a second chance.

As I have spoken about previously in this place, we know there are three key things that are critical in reducing the likelihood of an offender reoffending. The first is making sure they are not released into homelessness. Not all prisoners have access to ready accommodation post their release, and if a prisoner is released into homelessness there is every prospect they will end up in one of two places: either a hospital emergency department, which is probably the only place that is more expensive to house a prisoner in South Australia than a gaol, or in gaol itself.

The second element is making sure they have access to some basic community support networks, including social support networks, which are crucial to making sure that someone does not reoffend. A third one, which is probably in some ways the hardest, is making sure that prisoners are not necessarily released into a job straightaway but at least released into the community with the prospect of getting a job. This government is committed to making sure that we try to address each of those elements, particularly the two that government is able to influence more than the other element: a job and getting access to housing.

In the budget this year we announced $40 million of additional resources going to our effort to reduce reoffending, and two key components of that were the Work Ready, Release Ready program and also the New Foundations program, which is aimed to make sure that people are not released into homelessness.

With the Work Ready, Release Ready program, though, it is going to be critical that we work with the business sector, particularly (obviously, the private sector). There are many employers out there who do not just see the hiring of labour as an opportunity to grow their business, although that is fundamental, but see using their power as an employer to also make an even greater contribution to our community by using employment in a philanthropic context. We have seen a number of employers commit themselves to increase the number of Aboriginals they employ, having Indigenous recruitment targets and so forth, but we also see some employers willing to take the extraordinary step of providing offenders with a second chance in the community.

Many employers I have spoken to who have done that have sincerely told me that the offenders they have given opportunities to are indeed some of their best employees, because some offenders take up that second chance with gusto and treat it as the precious opportunity that it indeed is. I want to thank those employers who have the courage to do that, and I would actively encourage many more to see ex-offenders, who have made the commitment to turn their lives around, as potentially good employees into the future.