Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Floyd du Plessis: Corrections Association President on the lack of capacity in the face of the Government's sentencing law reforms

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Floyd du Plessis: Corrections Association President on the lack of capacity in the face of the Government's sentencing law reforms · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Tougher sentences on the way for the courts forty percent
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: sentence reduction cap New aggravating factors that will increase sentences
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: potentially includes offenses against people working alone, that's your dairies,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: those whose home and businesses are attached. Change is set
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to increase. They think the prison population by somewhere between
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: about fourteen hundred ish to seventeen hundred ish annually for
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the next ten years. Corrections Association President Floyd Duplas's backward
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Floyd morning, Good morning. Are you looking to be inundated
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: with new prisoners do you think? Or we just don't know.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: We definitely expect a increase. Will it be as large
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: as that?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: We just don't know unless they build new spaces. Are
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: you full?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: We are currently full with what's open. So there is
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: ran another two thousand beds in theory available, but we're
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: not staffed for it as yet.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Okay. And staffing and recruitment, I think Mark Mitchell was
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: in front of somebody last week in the Scrutiny Week thing.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: He said there's a lot of applications. Recruitment's going reasonably well.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Is that true or not?
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: There are a lot of applications. One of the concerns
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: we still have is while having a lot of applications
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: sounds good, how many of those applications of viable candidates
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: and actually go through to employment? And that number has improved,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: but it's definitely not as high as it needs to be.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: So that campaign seems to on the surface anyway, to
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: have worked. The big ag campaign that's run about being
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: a corrections officer.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the recent campaign, they definitely did improve things.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: It gave a slightly more honest opinion on the fact
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: that staff do do things. So it has helped and
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: has improved. What we do need though, is we need
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: a bit more of a focus on getting real people
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: in through the door and into employment.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: What interesting me about the debate we're having at the moment.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, you get more prisoners, what are we doing
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: in this country? Are we doing that to put them
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: away to rehab them so they don't go back again,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: or are we just simply putting them away to sober
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: problem for now? What's your view?
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately historically we just put them away to solve the problem.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: It's something that does need a massive overhall. I know
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: the Minister has stated that he's got a big focus
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: on that and to improve the access two programs and
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: meaningful change. So that is something that they have committed
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: to work on, but it is a piece of work
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: that absolutely is needed. We have a history of putting
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: people in, pretending to rehab them and then sending them
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: out and it's a ritis cycle. And so yes, it
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: is something needs a massive focus.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: If you stuck me in prison today and I want
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: to be rehabbed, can I be and successfully and will? No?
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: There is only a very small portion of the population
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: that does get meaningful rehab and a change. But it
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: is a very small portion and that's the problem. It
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: needs to be a far more widespread and it needs
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: to be more targeted to the reality of what jobs
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: are out there. So giving some of our program it
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: says how you need to be you're nicer person. It's
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: all going well, but we need to give them skills
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: and training and areas where they will get employment and
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: that's the big change that is needed.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: All right, Bloyd, appreciate your INSIGHTE Floyd douplus Ce Corrections Association,
• 3:12
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• 3:15
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• 3:18
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