Corrective Services failing to rehabilitate prisoners

The Report from the Qld Audit Office into problems rehabilitating  and reintegrating into society  prisoners in Qld jails must be immediately addressed by the Qld Minister for Corrective Services, Laura Gerber and the Qld Premier.

QCCL Vice President ,Terry O’Gorman, said the Report which was released today by being tabled in the Qld Parliament is damning in its conclusions which includes that Qld Corrective Services does not have an effective approach to prisoner reintegration into the community including that less than half of all prisoners who left custody in 2024-2025 received pre release support[see p2 QAO Report].

“ This is against the QAO finding that 44 % of sentenced prisoners released from Qld Correctional Centres are returned to custody within 2 yrs,” Mr. O’Gorman said [see Report p1]

Further the QAO Report noted that only some prisoners are completing rehabilitation programs with the Report noting  that “……………they ( prisoners) do not get the integrated structure, programs education and employment  tailored to  their rehabilitation and reintegration needs,” Mr. O’Gorman Gorman said.

“ It has long been known by defence lawyers that there is a significant shortage  of rehabilitation programs for  Qld prisoners  with the result that many prisoners are serving well beyond their parole release date  thereby adding to the high cost to the taxpayer of large and steadily growing Qld prison numbers,” Mr.O’Gorman said.

Mr O’Gorman said that Minister Gerber  needs to front the media  to indicate what steps are going to be taken  to address the highly critical QAO Report especially in relation to  the crying need for an injection of funding to ensure prisoners can do rehabilitation programs in a timely manner so as to reduce the high rate of return to jail by prisoners and the ever increasing load on the taxpayer of a ballooning Qld jail population.

“ Seriously insufficient funding for rehabilitation programs  has been a longstanding problem in Qld. Queenslanders need to be told by both the Corrective Services Minister and the Premier  what the government is going to do to address the stinging criticisms of the QAO in relation to  the underperforming Qld Prison system,” Mr.O’Gorman said

Note: Terry O’ Gorman can be contacted on 0418787182