Page 1178 - Week 04 - Thursday, 26 March 2015
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Each building includes on-site program rooms, four in the accommodation unit and two in the special care unit, as well as a further two suitable spaces in the special care unit. These rooms and spaces are vital to enable detainees to spend time working through the causes of their offending behaviour, learning strategies to better control themselves and changing their patterns of thinking.
Also included in each building are interview rooms, four in the accommodation unit and three in the special care centre. In these rooms detainees will have on-site access to vital private counselling and support services as well as to legal counsel. Within both buildings is work space for program facilitators and case managers, psychological and support service officers, as well as health service providers. Each of these groups plays a vital role in stabilising detainees and setting them on the path to rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Close and ready access to detainees will support more immediate engagement between detainees and the rehabilitative team.
The design intent of the special care unit in particular recognises that some detainees will, for periods of their custody, have a need for intensive supervision and support due to their stage in the criminal justice process or due to programs they are undertaking. At a more basic level, the additional facilities have been designed with rehabilitation and human rights principles in mind. The built form seeks to avoid the institutionalisation that prison environments can cause. For example, high ceilings and skylight-like windows will provide open and naturally lit living spaces.
Over more than a decade, the ACT government has maintained a commitment to rehabilitate those sent to prison and reintegrate these people on their return to society. In building the AMC, we have maintained the principle that confinement to prison—the removal of liberty—is the punishment and the conditions of detention must respect the human rights of all members of our society. The additional facilities under construction at the AMC make a valuable contribution to furthering the ACT government’s rehabilitative goals, which is of benefit to all in our community.
I now turn to the extended through-care program. The program was established in 2012-13 with funding across two years from the 2012-13 budget. It was a significant development because it took the concept of through-care, well known both in Australia and overseas, and extended it for 12 months beyond the end of a detainee’s prison custody.
It was also significant because it was a model developed as a result of collaboration between key community agencies and government. Organisations including ACTCOSS, Northside Community Service, Directions ACT and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service providers joined forces to lobby the government for change in the area of offender services delivery. This community forum then worked closely with government agencies to develop extended through-care, identifying that the immediate post-release period was a crucial time for former detainees in determining whether they succeeded in their rehabilitation or returned to their offending ways.
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