Page 3225 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 17 September 2013
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representatives from a wide range of stakeholders, including ACT Housing, the Department of Human Services, Justice Health, the Mental Health Community Coalition of the ACT and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, amongst others.
As well as establishing the throughcare unit, the government’s funding also provides brokerage money of up to $1,500 per released detainee to assist offenders transitioning to the community. This funding will be managed by the community sector organisations with responsibility for individual case management.
Another key governance element is the establishment of a throughcare governance group. This group consists of senior representatives from Corrections, Justice and Community Safety and the Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate, as well as from the Community Integration Governance Group, which I mentioned earlier. It will have the oversight of the throughcare extension and will provide a biannual report on the initiative to the ACT’s cross-directorate management forum, the strategic board.
One particular issue that needs to be addressed is the health of released detainees. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report The health of Australia’s prisoners 2012 included findings that 84 per cent of the prisoners were smokers, 54 per cent reported drinking alcohol at risky levels and 70 per cent reported using an illicit drug in the previous 12 months.
Research led by former Burnet researcher, Associate Professor Stuart Kinner, published in the Medical Journal of Australia estimated that the number of deaths of recently released prisoners in Australia is 10 times higher than the total number of deaths in prison each year, highlighting the extreme vulnerability of this population on return to the community. This research demonstrates the urgent need to establish a national system for routine monitoring of ex-prisoner mortality and improved health outcomes for this profoundly marginalised group.
Prisoners and ex-prisoners in Australia and elsewhere are disproportionately affected by social disadvantage, chronic ill health and preventable disease, including bloodborne and sexually transmitted infections, mental illness and high rates of substance misuse, often a continuation of problems experienced prior to imprisonment.
While throughcare is still a relatively new program, I want to talk about how this initiative can impact and is already starting to impact on real people. The following story is based on a real person. However, we have changed some details in order to protect their identity. John was released from the AMC in June this year. He is in his mid-30s and has a criminal history stretching back to his late teens. He has a history of violence and his most recent period of imprisonment was for a violent assault on a male cousin.
He has drug and alcohol dependency issues, has a tendency to minimise his responsibility for crimes, to breach court orders and only superficially engage with rehabilitation programs and support services. When he was released, John had finished his sentence and was not required to engage with ACT Corrective Services. He is a tenant of Housing ACT, and he returned to his flat.
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