Workers Online
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  Issue No 31 Official Organ of LaborNet 17 September 1999  

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Unions

Hard Labour

By Kerri Carr

Prisoner educators argue more attention needs to be given to rehabilitation through teaching, but they're facing an uphill battle to convince authorities.

Teachers Federation General Secretary John Hennessy and Labor Council Secretary Michael Costa recently visited Long Bay Gaol Complex, a maximum security facility, to look at how funding is being spent in the criminal justice system.

Corrective Services Teachers Association President Peter de Graaff showed them around the Metropolitan Medical Transit Centre and Long Bay Hospital, two of the gaols in the complex. He is the Senior Education Officer for the Adult Education and Vocational Education Training Institute (AEVTI) at the Metropolitan Medical Transit Centre/Long Bay Hospital.

While Mr de Graaff advocates more of the money spent on keeping people in correctional centres should be spent on social justice, he said a greater percentage of the Corrective Services budget should go to education and other rehabilitation programs.

The Corrective Services budget is about $350 million, but only $4.2 million is spent on salaries for face to face teaching (mostly casual teachers), representing the bulk of funding spent on education.

As maximum security inmates spend 17 hours a day in their cells, education is seen by many of the inmates as an outlet, but education faces a battle in the Corrective Services Department when the primary concern is the custody of inmates.

Mr de Graaff said lockdowns interfere with courses, becoming a disincentive to participation. Education areas are often closed when there's not enough prison officers due to staff shortages.

He said education faces fewer problems in some correctional centres as opposed to others.

Recently, the way education funding is allocated by the Department of Corrective Services changed.

Originally education had its own budget where senior education officers submitted proposals to AEVTI which would be passed on to the Director of Finance for approval.

Under the new system there is no separate budget, with funding for education, welfare, drug and alcohol counselling and psychology funded under the Inmates' Services and Program Plan.

In the implementation of the new system, some of the traditional education funding was given to other areas.

The 1999 NSW Drug Summit recognised that "there is a relationship between poor school performance, low self-esteem, failure to complete secondary school, unemployment and being at risk of abusing drugs".

According to the Department's annual report about 85 per cent of inmates have never completed year 10.

"The Government should adequately fund education in correctional centres as well as other rehabilitation initiatives such as drug and alcohol programs," Mr de Graaff said.

"Funding for one area should not be at the expense of other areas."

The Department of Corrective Services employs 90 permanent and 220 casual teachers across the state. They teach pre vocational courses such as literacy, numeracy, ESL and oral communication.

In addition, the Department of Corrective Services has a Memorandum of Understanding with TAFE where TAFE teachers come into the correctional centres and teach specialised vocational training.

AEVTI campuses exist in all NSW correctional centres and all inmates have the opportunity to access them. Courses provide inmates with nationally recognised training. If a prisoner is transferred to another correctional centre, his/her education file is sent on to allow continuity in his/her course.

At the Metropolitan Medical Transit Centre inmates can do a Certificate of General Education for Adults. Subjects include reading and writing, English as a second language, oral communications, numeracy and mathematics. Options include legal studies, introduction to computers, music and conflict resolution skills.

Inmates can do a Certificate in Fine Arts. Subjects include drawing, ceramics and pottery, painting, printing and sculpture.

Vocational education courses offered include desktop publishing applications, sound engineering, fitness instructor, mentoring in the community, Aboriginal Arts and Cultural Practises, Aboriginal Peer mentoring, first aid, pre-employment/pre-release skills, painting and decorating.

In the past catering and landscaping courses have been offered.

Most of the courses offered are at year 10 level. Some students also do courses through distance education.

There are about 330 inmates at the Metropolitan Medical Transit Centre at present and about 60 to 70 per cent choose to participate in a course.

Classrooms at the Metropolitan Medical Transit Centre consist of some converted cells, and some demountable classrooms which are near condemned.

The education facilities at the correctional centre also include a general reading library and law library for legal research.

Mr de Graaff said inmates on remand or appeal use the law library to research their defence.

"We've found it helps them communicate with their solicitors better," he said.

"We've had some cases where some inmates, through their own research, have been able to win their cases and others who have pleaded guilty after doing their research."

In 1997 the AEVTI campus was presented with an Adult Learners Week Award for outstanding program in NSW in recognition of the legal literacy/law library program.

As an educator in a system where education is not the primary goal, Mr de Graaff is frustrated by several key points and would like to see improvements in several areas.

"Education doesn't get enough money," Mr de Graaff said.

"You can't just run a course, you have to resource it."

He explained how he convinced the correctional centre to buy paint for the painting and decorating course, and in return the students have been painting the correctional centre.

Mr de Graaff said it was frustrating that some long-term teachers were still casual. "Federation is campaigning to get many contract people converted to part-time permanent status.

"I think the Department could get more licences for more curriculums," he added.

Mr Costa and Mr Hennessy saw the need for increased funding to education in correctional centres during their visit.

Mr Costa said he was impressed with the educational activities he saw. "But with more resources more could be done to educate prisoners, helping them to adjust to a normal life when released from gaol."

Mr Hennessy said the Education Officers at Long Bay, and other correctional institutes he has visited do a fantastic job with somewhat limited resources.

"If governments were genuinely committed to rehabilitation of offenders, they would commit more resources to these institutions," Mr Hennessy said.


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*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 31 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Sadly Vindicated
Labor�s foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton has spent the past year warning that East Timor would explode without a UN peacekeeping force. Now he�s had to watch his predictions come true.
*
*  International: In the Bunker
One of the last reporters to leave East Timor, Workers Online's HT Lee remembers the week that Dili burned.
*
*  Republic: Tarred With the Same Brush
Neville Wran asks why it is that the most fervant monarchists are also the most eager union-bashers.
*
*  Unions: Hard Labour
Prisoner educators argue more attention needs to be given to rehabilitation through teaching, but they�re facing an uphill battle to convince authorities.
*
*  History: Labour and Community
A history conference in Wollongong next month will look at the changing role for labour into the next century.
*
*  Review: Bobbin' Up - 40 Years On
Forty years after its first publicaton and several European translations Bobbin Up, a classic of industrial fiction, is coming home.
*
*  Satire: East Timor Poll Triumph: Support for Jakarta Up 21 Per Cent
The Indonesian Government has declared that it is pleased with the result of the independence referendum in which 21% of East Timorese voted in support of maintaining links with Indonesia.
*

News
»  Asylum Call for Independence Supporters
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»  Nurses Collect Vital Medical Supplies
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»  Industrial Faction for Pre-Conference Caucus
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»  Lees Backs Freeloader Laws
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»  Outsourcing Decision - Banks Under the Gun
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»  Reith Forces Truckies to Speed
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»  He Talks the Talk - But Can He Walk the Walk?
*
»  Commission Tells AGC to Get Into the Nineties
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»  Cost-Cutting Puts Clinical Waste in Landfill
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»  Prisons Reject Free Computers
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»  US Defence Giant Eyes Welfare Sector
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Columns
»  Guest Report
*
»  Sport
*
»  Trades Hall
*
»  Piers Watch
*

Letters to the editor
»  TWU Wrong on Union Bans
*
»  A Lukewarm Republic
*
»  Compo Premium Cheats Should be Policed
*
»  Destroying Education
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