A glimpse behind the training regimen at Brush Farm Corrective Services Academy
BRUSH Farm Corrective Services Academy in Eastwood is where Corrective Services NSW teaches its recruits. Take a look behind the bars to see what sort of training is involved.
Parramatta
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LISA Barrett has delivered a baby, been there in the aftermath of a murder and had to use physical force on another person.
The ‘jill-of-all-trades’ has spent almost three decades working for Corrective Services NSW.
Just when she thinks she has seen it all, a “new (inmate) pops up you have to work out how to manage and help”.
The Mary Wade Correctional Centre senior correctional officer still remembers her first day on the job as a 20-year-old.
She tried to unlock a gate and, after pulling the key out, ended up with chewing gum all over her. Laughter from the inmate standing beside her echoed the jail.
“I was so young and inexperienced and all the inmates knew it,” she said.
She has since spent 28 years in male and female prisons, mental health and policy units and now works at Mary Wade Correctional Centre, a maximum-security prison for women in Lidcombe.
The centre can be an unpredictable space because the 69 female inmates who currently reside there are awaiting sentencing.
“Add drug and alcohol withdrawals, mental health, they’re in an unknown space in their head and often from very violent backgrounds,” she said.
“No day is ever the same. Just when you think you’ve met and dealt with every kind of personality, a new one pops up who you have to work out how to manage and help,” she said.
“The trauma they go through ... it’s a wonder they’ve survived.”
Ms Barrett said she was walking past a cell at 1am last year when she heard a baby screaming.
She walked in to find a woman had given birth and the cord was still mostly inside.
“She didn’t want the baby so it was really important for me to keep her calm and relaxed,” she said.
“I’ve been there after an inmate killed another inmate, seen slash-ups and have had to implement numerous uses of force.
“Good communication skills is essential to help de-escalate scenarios.”
DAY OF HONOUR
● National Corrections Day was held last month
● It celebrates the 25,000 frontline correctional staff in Australia
● Brush Farm Corrective Services Academy in Eastwood opened its doors for the day to the media
● Corrective Services NSW introduced the day as a way of highlighting some of Australia’s unsung heroes
● It has now been adopted as a national day in Australia and New Zealand
● NSW Corrective Services has 42 handlers and their dogs. They conducted 85,000 searches of visitors, their property and vehicles last year
