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The Forum > Article Comments > Making prison work > Comments

Making prison work : Comments

By Andrew Leigh, published 24/11/2009

Why are prisons less a portal to a new life than a revolving door? Corrective services need to correct, not just punish.

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Thank you, Divine Ms, you're obviously an intelligent, beautiful and good-hearted person.

Thanks also, Burbs, it had not occurred to me that an illiterate person, perhaps with no English but with brain damage, could gain their Ph. D, through all sorts of adversity - if it had a sound-track, it would make a good Hollywood movie.

But the realities are more like horses for courses: to move an illiterate person with no English just that little bit along the road, to where they are literate and speak English, in, say, a couple of years. Realistically, the aim should be to provide prisoners with substantially more skills than they had when they went in: so maybe someone with Year 11 or 12, and a fifteen year sentence, might be able to approach Ph.D. level in that time.

Obvously, it depends on the two factors - what is their pre-prison education level, and how long is their sentence ?

Okay, a third factor: how brain-damaged are they already ?

Prisoners already do some work, I believe, on appropriately lousy pay and fair enough. Those who choose to study full-time may already be eligible for Study Grant, which would be quite an incentive on its own. And I agree that prisoners should have the option of staying in their cells and rotting, doing some boring and menial work, or studying. It should be their choice.

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Wednesday, 25 November 2009 9:47:49 AM
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LM,

Glad my post was enlightening for you. If you need any more tips let me know.
Posted by burbs, Wednesday, 25 November 2009 10:25:33 AM
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“As a nation where a convict ancestor is a badge of pride, Australians know better than anyone that life can have a second act. The challenge today is to encourage our corrective services to correct, not just punish. Can we make jail work?”

It seems obvious to me that not the article author nor many posters, when I read the ignorant drivel like the above and the posts, have ever seen inside a prison.

In Victoria there is a directive which requires every prisoner to be employed in a productive “work activity” for at least 30 hours a week. That might be in a prison factory making saleable products or service, like laundry, kitchens etc.

In victoria most prisons have available education programs,run by external TAFE colleges and some have remedial psychological clinical courses too. Both of which which alternate for “work” time.

I would also observe that far from “one size fits all” notion expressed here, prisons are classified from the open style such as Tarrengower, with no walls, to the maximum security “Barwon”, designed for the real nasties with medium and lower security prisons and special prisons for special category offenders who would be at risk in the normal prison population.

However, we must remember that the biggest single influence on recidivism and the reforming ability of any prison system is the “prisoner”.

Prisoners come in all shapes and sizes and for all sorts of offences but one thing is certain, prisoners are not “model citizens” because, if they were, they would have avoided prison in the first place.

The biggest challenge to any prison system is to turn the patently defective individual into the perfect and socially repsonsbile individuals, which you all seem to expect will come out of a penal system

Get real people, it ain’t ever going to happen and anyone who thinks it is probably thinks that fairies live at the bottom of the garden but in victoria all the fairies are locked up, mostly in in Ararat.
Posted by Col Rouge, Wednesday, 25 November 2009 1:18:47 PM
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What no quote from Baroness Ridiculous.
Wild assumptions again complete with your open and shut mentality, topped with your usual dollop of arrogance and insults.

I was raised on a prison farms (dad was the boss) and have spent years involved in prisoner aid.

You really should buy an up to date calender
Posted by examinator, Wednesday, 25 November 2009 7:04:39 PM
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LOL Col - fairies indeed. But seriously you speak like someone who has knowledge and experience of the system, at least in Vic.

Can anyone comment on whether there are marked variations between States?

I will concur the average prisoner is not there because they were caught riding their pushbike without a helmet. However there is a significant number of people doing time for welfare and other fraud, fine evasion, culpability ie dangerous driving (or other irresponsible or negligent behaviour) causing GBH or death, drug dealing of modest proportions ie well down the supply chain - in other words boys and girls who would in many cases benefit from being segregated from violent offenders and being offered vigorous rehabilitation.

Realise that some prisons are higher security than others but am also aware that in most the population is an eclectic mix of criminals. I would continue to argue that a tiered system would probably maximise opportunities for meaningful reformation and prevent some from coming out more adapt offenders than they went in. This may be even more true of the juvenile detention system.
Posted by divine_msn, Wednesday, 25 November 2009 8:22:06 PM
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/26/2754284.htm?section=justin

Does this ring any bells?
Posted by RobP, Thursday, 26 November 2009 12:17:46 PM
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