Lockyer Valley Correctional Centre welcomes the first of many correctional officers

The first of hundreds who will rehabilitate offenders behind the walls of the state-of-the-art Lockyer Valley Correctional Centre have been welcomed into Queensland Corrective Services. See the reality of working at the prison here.

Lockyer Valley Correctional Centre welcomed its first 15 custodial correctional officers at their official graduation ceremony in Gatton.

The group is just the first of many who will be dispatched at the new state-of-the-art correctional facility which is set to open in 2024.

For the past 10 weeks, graduates have undergone intensive training from fitness tests, to understanding their legislative obligations and how best to work with prisoners with complex trauma.

With construction of Lockyer Valley Correctional Centre not yet finalised, graduates will be stationed between Arthur Gorrie, Borallon, Wolston and Brisbane Womens Correctional Centres.

Queensland Corrective Services graduate custodial correctional officer Everton Rose has made quite the career change, from retail management at Bunnings to helping rehabilitate offenders.

“I wanted to do something that would be challenging, and I’m looking forward to changing lives,” he said.

Queensland Corrective Services newly-graduated custodial correctional officer Everton Rose at Lockyer Valley Cultural Centre, December 21, 2023. Photo: Jessica Klein.

The 1536 bed facility will require more than 600 custodial correctional officers to man its walls.

Bringing 30 years of experience to the table, Lockyer Valley Correctional Centre Chief Superintendent Bernie Krause said working within Queensland Corrections has been his most rewarding career.

“I started over 30 years ago as a casual, not even as an officer,” Superintendent Krause said.

“I started as a casual and worked my way up, and now I’ve worked in every type of custody there is from low through to maximum.”

Chief Superintendent Krause said there was no singular role for a custodial correctional officer.

“There’s many different roles within the correctional officers sort of sphere, there’s officers who run movement controls, gatehouses, and master control, which is the communications for the centre,” he said.

“There’s also monitoring all of the detection capability in terms of the perimeter, and all of those things that keep the perimeter safe and intact.”

Lockyer Valley Correctional Centre will be led by Chief Superintendent Bernie Krause (centre) who has 30 years experience working in Queensland Corrections. Photo: Jessica Klein

Communications monitoring was just one of the many units for officers to be placed in, with others who work directly with prisoners.

“They’ll work in units with prisoners, providing services to prisoners on a daily basis, making sure they get to where they’re supposed to be going in terms of industries, work and programs,” Chief Superintendent Krause said.

“Then there’s other staff that facilitate activities, and then there’s people who work in a complex behaviour unit, where we’ve got some prisoners with very complex needs and some of them are quite ill.”

Queensland Corrective Services will hold more graduations in the new year, with cohorts of up to 60.

Vacancy’s are still available at Lockyer Valley Correctional Centre, which will require more than 800 staff to get it up and running.

The annual salary for a custodial corrections officer ranges from $88,160 up to $117,152.

Originally published as Lockyer Valley Correctional Centre welcomes the first of many correctional officers