April 2013
Arthur Gorrie wins innovation award
Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre has won the inaugural GEO Innovation Award for its groundbreaking youth education program.
Titled ‘GEO Builds Better Students – A Prison Awareness Program’, the Arthur Gorrie submission outlined the work the correctional facility initiated in 2012 to demonstrate to local youth the potential life-changing impact of a criminal conviction.
The initiative followed greater awareness of violence among young adults in the streets of Australian capital cities and an increase in the level of violence in Queensland schools.
Arthur Gorrie developed a pilot program in conjunction with local secondary school Flagstone State Community College, which culminated in correctional officers giving a presentation to a group of Year 12 students.
The presentation covered the realities of being in prison and the potential damaging affect that being incarcerated can have on an individual, both in the short and long term, as well as the impact on an inmate’s family and loved ones.
It also examined how individuals can play a role in reducing recidivism by encouraging family members who are incarcerated or who have a history of incarceration to become productive members of society. The final component looked at career opportunities in the corrections industry.
Flagstone Year 12 coordinator Suzanne Klatt described the presentation as “by far the best I have had the privilege of witnessing” in her four years in the role. “In the world that we live in today teenagers more than ever are in need of guidance and too often we see them make silly mistakes with very real legal consequences. If education can begin now then it may prevent some young people from ending up in your facilities,” she said.
Feedback from students and teachers following the initial session was very positive and was used to further develop the program now called ‘Prison Awareness: Think before you act! Don’t make prison your life’.
Since then a further five sessions have been run with officers also attending Aquinas College on the Gold Coast, St Francis College, Loganlea State High School and Carmel Catholic College.
Aquinas College teacher Marj Osborne described the presentation as “an invaluable wake up call”. “It provided a matter-of-fact look at life behind bars, with officers candidly answering students' questions. No mystique, no glory, just facts,” she said.
Staff presenting the program do so on a voluntary basis, traveling and presenting in their own time. Arthur Gorrie will continue to deliver the program to schools throughout South East Queensland. The prison has also had expressions of interest from indigenous community centres and youth centres.
“This youth intervention program exemplifies our corporate vision of ‘reducing offending to enable safer communities’ and Arthur Gorrie is to be commended for the initiative,” said The GEO Group Australia managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout.
The program will be further developed in 2013 before being taken up by all GEO centres in Australia. It has also been designed so that Queensland Corrective Services can deliver the program in regional areas.
Support materials have been developed including a DVD that features anonymous prisoners discussing aspects of prison life and expressing their feelings about being incarcerated.
The GEO Innovation Award prize provides financial support to further develop the program and rewards for the Arthur Gorrie employees involved. Developed by GEO to encourage innovative practices throughout the company, the award will again be staged in 2013.
There has been plenty of activity surrounding Prison Build housing projects at Junee Correctional Centre in recent months with a dedication ceremony for a home built under the Housing for Humanity (HFH) banner and two more prefabricated ‘shells’ leaving the prison.
The dedication ceremony saw the first home built at the prison officially handed over to Wendy McLaren and her sons Luke and Tom. It was the culmination of more than two years hard work by centre staff and inmates as well as key partners in the project, HFH and TAFE NSW Riverina Institute. Significant support was also received from Junee Shire Council, local community members and HFH family partners.
“It’s absolutely awesome, a dream come true,” Ms McLaren said.
The second house, which left the centre in two halves in February, is being built for Pat and Helen McDermott, who lost their uninsured home in a fire. Inmates built the one-bedroom home for the Junee Fire Brigade, which initiated the gesture and raised more than $10,000 to pay for materials.
The third house built at the prison is also part of the HFH program.
The Prison Build initiative follows Junee Correctional Centre introducing a building and construction certificate course through TAFE NSW Riverina Institute in 2009.
Fulham praised for partnerships
Fulham Correctional Centre has won recognition for its long-term association with Wellington Shire Council at the Corrections Victoria Community Work Partnership Awards 2012. Runner-up in the ‘Best Ongoing Partnership’ category, Fulham also won the ‘Best in Gippsland Region’ award for its relationship with the council.
For a decade Fulham has worked closely with the council, assigning prisoners approaching release to work on a large number of community- based projects.
Wellington Shire mayor Scott Rossetti was delighted with the acknowledgment from Corrections Victoria.
“All across the shire, works have been completed to an exceptionally high standard by community assistance work crews from the Fulham Correctional Centre as part of the prisoners’ rehabilitation process,” he said.
The Corrections Victoria panel of 24 independent judges also presented Fulham with first prize in the ‘Most Outstanding New Project’ category.
Fulham’s submission, titled Learning Whilst Repairing (Reparation and Restoration), outlined the centre’s contribution to the restoration and beautification of Central Gippsland Health Service's facilities.
“There is satisfaction in the knowledge that these partnerships provide prisoners with purposeful and meaningful work and from being able to say ‘yes, we can help’ to those in need in our own community,” said former Fulham general manager Troy Ittensohn.
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