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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
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Correctional Services Department

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (14:45): Supplementary question: how much does it cost per prisoner for a prisoner to participate in a 'prerelease' program and, statistically, what impact does participation have on recidivism?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for her important question. Regarding cost, one has to start with the figure of the cost of incarceration. The cost of incarceration is in the order of $70,000 to $100,000 per annum, per prisoner, depending on the facility that they are in. It is an extraordinary cost, which is why we have to have that objective at heart of aiming to reduce the rate of reoffending.

Using programs pre-release, for example a prisoner going through the Pre-release Centre, is a very good example of the sort of effort that can be made of trying to maximise the likelihood of when an offender is ultimately released as a result of a decision—not made by me or anyone within the government, but rather, by the court—that when that person is released, the likelihood of them getting back into the community and making a positive contribution, as distinct from reoffending and creating another victim, and then, of course, resulting in more incarceration with a more considerable expense, is an incredibly important effort.

It is about being smart on crime. Regarding the costs of rehabilitative programs, they are varied, depending on what particular section they are in. Already, this government has contributed additional funds and resources as a result of this year's state budget to a substantially larger investment in criminogenic programs; for instance, funding of, my advice is, an additional 19 to 20 FTEs in delivering criminogenic programs. I think part of your question was the specific costs associated with having someone in a high security facility versus the Adelaide Pre-release Centre? Was that the tenor of the question?

The Hon. K.L. Vincent: Not really, but—

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: I don't have a statistic at hand along those lines, but what I can assure the house is that the cost of rehabilitative programs, the costs of keeping people out of gaol, will always be cheaper than locking them up.

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