Page 3115 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 October 2022
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just one. A study conducted on inmates in the US showed that inmates who participated in correctional education programs have 43 per cent lower odds of recidivism than those who did not, and the odds of obtaining employment post-release for inmates involved in education programs versus those who were not was 30 per cent higher.
Given the government’s target of reducing recidivism by 25 per cent by 2025, these stats should have them salivating for an education provider. They say they are prioritising resources to obtain one; but, when they have already taken a year to do so, I find their assertion hard to believe. The right to education is enshrined in our Human Rights Act. Everyone has the right to have access to education, to further education and vocational and continuing training. (Second speaking period taken.) The Corrections Management Act says that detainees “must have reasonable access to news and education services”.
As of now, the government’s compliance with these two acts is questionable, and is in breach of detainees’ human rights. Frankly, it would not be the first time this year that the government was found to have breached the human rights of detainees at the AMC.
With all of these shortcomings, it is imperative that we have well-resourced oversight bodies. Currently, we do not have that. The primary dedicated oversight body for our corrections systems is the Office of the Inspector of Correctional Services. This office is staffed with hardworking experts in the corrections field. The office was created with the primary purpose of overseeing AMC and ensuring that it is compliant with legislation, policy and human rights.
It was expected at the time of the office’s creation that, in addition to providing daily oversight and producing an all-of-centre healthy prison review, they would likely have to produce another report, perhaps once a year, in response to a critical incident. Since the office’s creation, instead of producing just one critical incident report a year, they are producing three or four times as many.
They have also been put in charge of overseeing the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre, and form part of the national preventive mechanism for the ACT. This increase in duties has not been accompanied by a proportional increase in funding by the ACT, despite the office putting in a budget bid for the past three years, asking for just one more full-time employee—just one.
The estimates committee heard evidence that suggested current funding levels are limiting the inspector’s capacity for oversight. This is extremely concerning to me, and it should be concerning to anyone who believes in freedom and human rights. It seems to me that this government do not care about these things. If they did, they would not have ignored the inspector’s request for additional resources for three years.
To make up the shortfall in their manpower, the office has been funding additional positions within their operational funding. Given the host of failures that this government is responsible for in the corrections space, it is critical to fund the body designed to keep the government accountable for their failures.
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