Ms ROSOL – Coming back to corrections and rehabilitation again. Tasmania has one of the highest rates of recidivism in the country, which highlights the importance of rehabilitation. I receive letters from people who are currently in prison and I’ve spoken with people after they’ve been released and, often, what they tell me is that they’ve had a lot of difficulty accessing rehabilitation while they’re in prison.
I’m wondering if you could outline for me the specific rehabilitation programs that have been provided. I understand there’s more funding in this interim Budget for programs. What have been the specific rehabilitation programs that have been provided within Tasmania’s prisons? How many people have participated in each of the programs? What are the waitlists for each of those programs?
Mr BARNETT – Thank you very much for the question. I appreciate your interest in this matter. I want to indicate that the recidivism rates in Tasmania have reduced for the first time in seven years. Only a little bit, but they’ve reduced and that’s good news and I hope we can continue that progress. I thank the correctional service officers and the Tasmanian Prison Service for their efforts. I should also note there’s been a reduction in the number and rate of assaults on staff. There’s also been a reduction –
Ms ROSOL – Sorry, can I bring attention back to the question? My specific question was about rehabilitation programs, please.
Mr BARNETT – I’m about to address that. There’s been a reduction in the cost of prisoners per day costs and no escapes from custody in the last two years. So, they’re all positive.
Going to the specifics of your question, we have a whole range of programs to address rehabilitation and reintegration – peer support programs, dress for success, welcome back programs – and I can outline those further. I’m also happy to pass to the secretary to add to the importance of reintegration into the community for our prisoners and to say that the drug and alcohol treatment measures that we talked about earlier today is part of that process. There are therapeutic services that the Tasmanian Prison Service provides, crisis support and a new stream of specialist support. So they are many and various, and I am more than happy to pass to the secretary to add to my answer, if that would assist the member.
Ms BOURNE – Thanks, minister, through you. Without repeating what you already said. Funding provided in last year’s Budget was significant in this particular area. We received just over $3.6 million over the forward Estimates for treatment programs for sex offenders in response to a commission of inquiry recommendation; $4.11 million over the forward Estimates for a correctional improvement program, which includes additional drug and alcohol treatment programs within the TPS, as well as transitional housing in the north-west for transitional women’s accommodation; and the Risdon Prison Construction program, which provides $15.89 million for improvements including the development of a residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, and additional funding for the new kitchen that the minister has referred to.
The TPS provides a range of programs: sex offender treatment, family violence treatment, violence, drug and alcohol, and also treatment of general offending. In terms of key figures, I have a more global set of figures. For the period from July 2024 to 30 June 2025, there were 217 new enrolments in intervention programs, 128 completions, 53 still participating and 37 non-completions due to relocation or early release.
In addition to group-based programs, our rehabilitation and reintegration staff provide ongoing case management to prisoners. We have one-on-one program work for a number of prisoners, including in relation to drug and alcohol treatment and behavioural therapy. I do have a breakdown of those figures, minister, I’m not sure if you’d like me to – in terms of completion rates for –
Ms ROSOL – Yes, that would be good. I’m looking for quite specific information about yeah, specific programs, specific numbers, so if you have that information that would be great. Thank you.
Ms BOURNE – Minister, through you. These are all for the period 1 July 2024 to 31 March 2025.
- For the New Direction Sex Offender Treatment program, there were 31 prisoners enrolled, 23 completed, 8 currently participating, and 1 not completed;
- For the Family Violence program, there were 23 enrolled, 22 completed, and 1 not completed;
- For the Dialectical Behavioural Therapy program (DBT), there were 30 enrolled, 9 completed, 13 participating, and 8 not completed;
- For the EQUIPS program, there were 75 enrolled, 45 completed, 18 participating, and 12 not completed;
- For the Resilience program there were 42 enrolments, 29 completions, and 13 non-completions;
- For the Making Changes program there were 8 enrolled, and 8 still currently participating, and;
- For the EQUIPS Aggression program there were 8 enrolled, 6 participating, and 2 not completed.
Ms ROSOL – Thank you. Just following on, and still talking about rehabilitation. My understanding is that people who are in remand can’t access rehabilitation, but many of them want to. What avenues are available for them to participate in programs and what plans do you have to make them more available in future?
Mr BARNETT – I’ll pass to the secretary.
Ms BOURNE – Thanks minister, through you. It is often a challenge, I know, for staff at the prison, in terms of the intent to provide rehabilitation to remandees, but for factors I’m sure are well known to this committee that’s difficult, so as to not pre-empt the outcome of their sentence. However, the prison is also receiving $1.5 million from the Commonwealth Government over four years for an innovative perpetrator response program specifically designed for remandees and prisoners on short sentences for family violence offences.
The first of these programs commenced in the Southern Remand Centre on 30 April of this year, delivered to remandees who, as I said, have not traditionally been provided with access to programs. Hopefully we’ll be able to provide further data to the minister in due course about how that first-of-its-kind program plays out to inform further work that we may undertake with our remandee population.
