ACT correctional authorities are preparing to launch an ambitious, Australian-first program to stop prisoners returning to crime by helping to rebuild almost every aspect of their lives for a full year after release.
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The government has spent more than $1 million setting up a ''Throughcare Unit'' that will link prisoners up with everything from housing, employment, transport, health services, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation for a year after their release or the end of their parole period.
The scheme, the brainchild of ACT Corrections, the Chief Minister's Department and a range of community groups, is being described as the first by any government in Australia, and possibly the world, to co-ordinate support for prisoners for such an extended period after release.
Participation will be voluntary for the roughly 200 prisoners released from the Alexander Maconochie Centre each year.
It will cost the government an average of $1500 each prisoner to broker the support services.
The model will seek to repair the fractured lives of released prisoners in four broad areas; housing, health, employment, and "connections", referring to a process of reconnection with family, friends and pro-social associates.
Released prisoners, for example, could be found a job, housing, transport to and from appointments and work, financial advice, counselling, and a variety of health and rehabilitation services.
The new model - which has been in the pipeline for more than two years - is a long-term strategy, with every aspect designed to remove released prisoners and their families from the cycle of recidivist crime.
ACT Corrective Services executive director Bernadette Mitcherson said the approach was unique and recognised that the year after release was critical in preventing reoffending.
"We are the first [agency] who has recognised the need to extend it beyond the period of custody, so
that's pretty exciting," Ms Mitcherson said.
"I'm not aware of any other jurisdiction that's actually said 'listen this is a bigger problem than just managing someone on parole … or in jail'," she said.
"It needs a whole lot more than that," she added.
But Ms Mitcherson warned the new model was unlikely to produce success overnight. "There isn't a silver bullet, this is a long-term project, where complex clients need a lot of services for a long period of time, and even with the provisions of these services, someone is still going to come back into custody.
"But it might mean the next time they come in they are staying out for longer periods.
"In this kind of business, you really need to count small wins."
Northside Community Service chief executive officer Simon Rosenberg, one of many community agency representatives involved in developing the model, described the changes as "very significant".
Mr Rosenberg said a similar approach in Norway had halved recidivism rates in three years.
But he warned that close collaboration between the large number of government and community stakeholders was vital if similar results were to be obtained in the ACT.
"A lot of focus in Canberra has been on the AMC as a human rights prison, but all the evidence says that the really important stuff happens as people leave the prison and thereafter," he said.
"It's really that through-care phase which is the highest risk for people to fail, to either commit crimes again, for their health to deteriorate, for their drug addictions to kick in, for opportunities for employment to be missed, to not get training they need and to not be well housed.
"That's the stuff that can exacerbate the cycle of poverty, disadvantage and imprisonment."
Community agencies have been given the rare chance to help build the new through-care model since the early policy stages, something Mr Rosenberg said had shown "enormous potential". "This is not yet common practice across government anywhere frankly, not just in the ACT, but I think this example is a really good practice one for the ACT to be proud of.
"You've got genuine collaboration and trust between the community sector and government."
The first prisoners are expected to participate in the new model next month.