Page 2420 - Week 08 - Thursday, 5 August 2021
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necessary steps to fill the gaps in this area. I am, however, concerned that the motion proposes counselling and further arming of correctional officers as bandaid solutions—whereas we need to take an evidence-based approach to a better safety culture within our corrections system.
Starting with counselling, research suggests that psychological interventions like counselling and wellbeing programs have a negligible effect on correctional officer stress. This does not mean that counselling is not important—it is important—but that organisational safety culture is so much more important to overall outcomes for the mental health of correctional officers. This means taking a holistic look at the workplace environment and not just merely parking the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
In this case, the safety and wellbeing of correctional officers is inseparable from the safety and wellbeing of detainees. It is interesting to me that Mrs Kikkert implies that detainees have adequate onsite counselling when a recent review states:
There is only one psychologist position at the AMC to provide general (as opposed to forensic) psychological services to some 500 detainees. This staffing level is grossly inadequate and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
Detainees also need onsite counselling by virtue of the fact that they are detained there; they cannot nip out and go to their counsellor’s office. It may be more appropriate, effective and efficient for staff to access offsite counselling, notably for privacy reasons. We must ensure that we are supporting workers in this extremely challenging environment, but what an opportunity is lost to call on the government to review the mental health services for those who live and work at the AMC.
Further, we have lost the opportunity to really get to the crux of why correctional officers are reporting increased psychological stress. We need to follow the evidence. A meta-review published just last year made it clear, once again, that the organisational structure and climate had the most consistent relationship with correctional officer job stress and burnout. Our correctional officers need and deserve a strong safety culture. This means going so much further than just counselling, which is an ambulance-at-the-bottom-of-the-cliff approach, as I mentioned earlier.
Weapons, or the lack of weapons, seem to be another theme of Mrs Kikkert’s motion. The implication seems to be that the lack of weapons, particularly in escort scenarios, may be related to correctional officer wellbeing and safety. It may surprise members of this chamber that in three recent wide-ranging reviews of what increases safety in prisons arming officers does not appear once. Mrs Kikkert recently stated:
Indigenous Canberrans worry not just about how many of their community members are locked up but about what happens to them once they are inside.
But as I mentioned above, a prison is no ordinary place: it is a place where detainees are placed in an unnatural state of dependence and therefore vulnerability.
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