Page 520 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 15 February 2017
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I have also recently been advised that the new industries that have been introduced into the prison, with a bakery and a laundry being built, have commenced. I support this. Encouraging and incentivising prisoners to work within the prison is a good thing. It is well documented that prisoners benefit from being involved in work while they are incarcerated. Studies have shown that almost half of all detainees have no qualifications, and as many as 13 per cent have never had a job. Assisting detainees in gaining qualification helps them to break the cycle of boredom and crime while unemployed, and simultaneously enables them to effectively contribute to the community and economy upon their release.
Creating opportunities for prisoners to work while incarcerated is a good thing, as giving prisoners the opportunity to be engaged in on-the-job training and to develop new skills will, hopefully, help them not just to be job ready, but to have a greater sense of purpose and self-worth as they re-enter the broader community with these new skills.
However, I have recently been advised that these new industries, which enable prisoners at the AMC to be work ready and have a greater sense of self-worth, are available only to the male population. It would seem that the Labor-Greens coalition have put their interest entirely in the men, perhaps believing that the male prisoners’ need to have a job after is more important or simply because their numbers are higher, because it is easier to produce programs for them for work, not to mention prioritising the male detainees’ self-worth ahead of the women. It clearly has happened when there are not any opportunities for the women to work.
As outlined in my motion, the ACT government has agreed to the standard guidelines for corrections in Australia, and has agreed to meet set objectives for detainees, including rehabilitation programs and educational standards. I would like to take the Assembly through a couple of the guiding principles that the government has signed up to.
Principle 2 requires that inmates are managed equitably, with recognition of their diverse needs. I ask the question: how has the government sought to manage the women in the AMC equitably or to recognise the diverse needs of the women incarcerated at the AMC?
Under principle 3, we have committed to engage actively with the inmates to:
… make positive behaviour change (inclusive of accessing intervention programmes, education, vocational education and work opportunities) with the aims of preparing them for their participation in and return to the community, as well as reducing re-offending behaviour.
Clearly the government has so far failed with respect to this principle when women at the prison are not provided with any opportunity to be engaged in these new industries now available to the men.
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