Fulham Correctional Centre |
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Located near Sale in eastern Victoria, Fulham Correctional Centre is a 777 bed medium to minimum security facility occupying 50 acres of open space with the look of a campus.
Inmates are contained by highly efficient custodial technology allowing for more open space and flexibility than most prisons.
Management of the prisoners’ environment is a major consideration at the centre. While security is not compromised, the ‘campus-style’ design permits maximum flexibility in an environment that rewards positive behaviour and actively encourages offenders to accept responsibility for their actions.
Fulham’s ‘campus style’ is partly the result of the varied programs available for inmates and the classification of prisoners.
Fulham Correctional Centre also manages an offenders program that combines cognitive behaviour therapy and adventure challenge education at the adjacent Nalu Community Challenge unit.
Medical and Health Services
Fulham provides a health services centre that delivers a full range of medical and associated health services. The medical centre is an ACHS accredited facility.
Fulham Correctional Centre operates a methadone program. This program has recently expanded to facilitate more prisoners and the centre is now authorised to induct into the program. Prisoners in both mainstream and protection unit receive daily dosing through the use of iris scanning technology. Methadone is dispensed from two locations on site, using the same software and database.
Training
Fulham Correctional Centre has adopted and successfully implemented a corrections education partnership with the East Gippsland Institute of TAFE. The partnership allows accredited vocational education and training programs to be delivered by qualified and industry experienced teaching staff while providing opportunities for prisoners to work in a production industry utilising those vocational skills.
To enhance prisoner rehabilitation, the prison offers a full range of programs including recreational (sports, arts and crafts, etc.), education (delivered through TAFE), and others addressing prisoners’ offending behaviour and offence-related needs (psychological services, drug and alcohol programs, etc.).
Prison Industries
Fulham Correctional Centre operates a variety of industry programs that provide prisoners with employment and training opportunities. Wherever possible the industries are operated to reflect commercial businesses in the community, thereby providing meaningful work skills and experience that may assist the prisoner in seeking employment upon release.
Vocational training is delivered in such areas as woodwork, general construction, engineering, automotive and horticulture. The training is very much integrated within a production work environment, enhancing the work experience for prisoners.
Fulham industries operate within the Industry Skills Centre Program, a Corrections Victoria initiative that focuses on the current skills and labour shortages in Victoria. Through a series of rigorous assessments an ‘individual skills plan’ is written that highlights the skills deficit of each prisoner enrolled and provides an action plan to address those deficiencies. Employability skills provide the initial focus in areas such as communication, problem solving and teamwork. The prisoner moves on to specific trade skills over time. A Business Liaison Officer meets regularly with potential employers from throughout Victoria and keeps everyone up to date with the skills and personal traits that the job market requires. The aim of the program is to not only enhance a prisoner’s opportunity for employment upon release but to link him to an employer who requires the skills he has gained during his sentence.
The business units of industries at Fulham are founded on import replacement objectives. Many local not for profit organisations benefit from the donations of goods and services made by the prisoners.
Community
Fulham Correctional Centre returns approximately $28 million annually to the local economy, through wages paid to staff and a corporate philosophy to use local businesses to support the centre's operations.
The government allocated $8.9 million to build the Nalu Challenge Community in 2002 and about 85 per cent of the contractors employed were from the local community and the majority of building materials locally supplied.
Each year Fulham Correctional Centre provides community grants and scholarships to the value of $20,000. This includes donations to local special schools, primary schools and sporting cubs.
Community work crews contribute an average of 20,000 hours to community work annually.
The Nalu Challenge Community work crew has been recognised by the Victorian Government for its community service work on the Gippsland Rail Trail.
The program won a Community Partnership Award and was named the most outstanding new project for its commitment to upgrade and maintain the Gippsland Plains Rail Trail, which runs along the railway line from Stratford to Maffra.
In 2008 Fulham Correctional Centre won Corrections Victoria’s ‘Local Council/Shire Initiative award for its work with the Wellington Shire Council in transforming neglected public land into the Heyfield International Walk parklands. The award also marked a successful 10-year partnership between Fulham and Wellington Shire.
Accreditations
Fulham Correctional Centre is certified to ISO 9001:2000 and AS 4801:2000 Occupational Health and Safety Management System.
The facility’s medical centre is accredited by The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards.
On the sustainability front, Fulham has been awarded the International Certification of Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14001).
Other programs
Fulham continues to take a leadership role in providing significant programs for inmates. These include the Muramali Program which helps Aboriginal prisoners affected by the forced removal of family members. Fulham is the first facility to present this program within Australia.
Fulham also operates a comprehensive Injury Management and Rehabilitation Program that has resulted in early intervention and early return to work programs.
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