Transitional services in Western Australian Prisons

Currently there are over 6,000 people held in Western Australian prisons every day. What is not generally known is that even more prisoners – over 7,000 – are released every year (600 per month or 150 per week). Each of these prisoners left the highly structured, monitored, and securitised prison environment and entered the relative …

Providing support to prisoners to transition back to society should be a key element in reducing the number of people returning to prison. However transition services in WA prisons are under-resourced, staffing levels are poorly correlated with demand, and services do not always reach the higher risk prisoners. Inevitably where resources are strained compromises and …

The resourcing of transitional services at each prison bears no relationship with the number of prisoners requiring transitional services. Limited data on the supply and demand for transitional services is available. There were inconsistent practices to access transitional managers across the prison estate. Some of these inconsistencies presented barriers to reintegration needs being met. The …

Ensure that the level of resourcing for transitional services is commensurate with demand and prisoner risk. Implement options to improve access to transitional services such as transitional clerks, orientation presentations and processes that identify ‘high needs’ prisoners. Provide access to relevant sections of the TOMS database to all Re-entry Link service providers. Establish a risk …