Charles Darwin University and Corrections announced $3.4m training partnership
For three-years running Territory prisons have failed to meet their training targets. Here’s how a new partnership could turn the tide of reoffending.
Tertiary
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A $3.4m partnership hopes to turn the tide of reoffending in the Territory by enrolling prisoners at Darwin’s university.
On Wednesday Attorney-General Chansey Paech announced the Charles Darwin University and Corrections partnership which will provide vocational training in retail, hospitality, trade, industry, health, and the arts sectors.
Mr Paech said the $1.7m per year partnership between the Darwin and Alice Springs prisons and CDU would “break the revolving door of prison” — with more than 56 per cent of released prisoners ending up back behind bars.
“We know that when we provide the tools for people in the Correctional environment when they leave they’ve got the opportunity to take on jobs in Country and on Country,” Mr Paech said.
“(And) if an inmate hasn’t finished the training upon release, we’ll certainly work with them to support them to be able to continue that education.”
Mr Paech spoke to a few low-security prisoners in Holtze’s Pre-Release Work Village to ask them about their training goals and hopes for the future.
“When you leave here, we want you to engage in the workforce in an area that you’re interested in, whether that is construction, hospitality, repairs, maintenance, carpentry, or even help with literacy and numeracy,” he said.
For three years running Corrections has failed to meet its training target of 20,475 hours of offender program delivery, with only a third of its program and education goal delivered in 2022-23.
Since 2015 education and training courses in Territory prisons have been provided by the troubled Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, which has recently faced ICAC investigations and a scathing summary by the Auditor-General’s office.
Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley said the contract with Batchelor Institute ended suddenly in June 2023, with the prisons turning to CDU to provide fee-for-service programs until the latest $1.7m agreement could be reached.
Mr Paech said CDU had a “proven track record of delivering quality services”, but added that the prison-education contract would be reviewed after two years.
CDU TAFE chief executive Michael Hamilton said he aimed to provide training to more than 1000 students from the prisons in the first year.
Mr Hamilton said CDU had 300 nationally accredited qualifications and short courses, with the prison selecting around 60 “appropriate” programs for the prisons.
Amid surging remand numbers, Mr Hamilton said there was scope for short courses to be available to unsentenced prisoners.
With more than 1300 people locked up in Darwin, and another 680 in Alice Springs, the Corrections boss compared each prison to a “small suburb”, with trained prisoners able to help in the kitchens, laundry, woodworking shops or joining the maintenance crews.
Mr Varley said his aim was to “give these fellas and ladies in our care a shot at different opportunities in life”.
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