Maintaining Programs for Aboriginal Offenders in Yatala Labour Prison, Adelaide Women's Prison and Elizabeth Community Corrections, South Australia

• NCJ Number: 194150
• Author(s): Alma Ridgway
• Date Published: October 2001
• Length: 4 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description; Conference Material
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: Paper presented at the Best Practice Interventions in Corrections for Indigenous People Conference, Sydney, Australia, October 8-9, 2001; downloaded February 5, 2002.

Annotation

This paper provides an overview of the efforts of South Australia's Department for Correctional Services to provide programs and services that target Aboriginal people involved in the criminal justice system, with attention to such programs in three correctional facilities.

Abstract

In South Australia's prisons, as in most other prisons in Australia, Aboriginal people are over-represented. In an effort to address this problem, the Department for Correctional Services has established an Aboriginal Services Unit to ensure that the Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, as they relate to corrections, are implemented. Further, policies and procedures that affect Aboriginal prisoners are being examined to ensure that they are implemented in a culturally sensitive manner. The Department employs Aboriginal Liaison Officers in all prisons and has recently appointed two Aboriginal Programs Officers to serve Yatala Labour Prison and Adelaide Women's Prison, along with the Elizabeth Community Corrections Centre; one Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer serves Adelaide Community Corrections Centres. Programs in these facilities include the use of an assessment unit that assigns inmates to programs according to the nature of their offenses. Core programs focus on domestic violence, anger management, alcohol and other drug treatment, and victim awareness. The Aboriginal Services Unit, through the Aboriginal Programs Officer, is working to make the content and delivery of these programs culturally sensitive to Aboriginal values, beliefs, and needs. The Department recognizes that much offending behavior by Aboriginal people results from unresolved grief and loss. The Department is addressing this situation by contracting with outside Aboriginal organizations to provide services that focus on grief and loss issues.