Corrections Victoria
Innovative Programme Design and Up skilling
Ken is such a professional we should have more training provided by him. Always a pleasure.
Corrections Victoria staff member
The Background
Corrections Victoria, similar to most large criminal justice systems provide intervention programs to reduce the propensity for someone to re-offend while and after being on sentence (either in prison or on community-based orders).
The Challenge
There is a sad story behind what prompted this project. Jill Meagher was a 29-year-old Irish woman living in Australia who was raped and murdered while walking home from a pub in Brunswick, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, in the early hours of 22 September 2012.
Meagher’s case was initially that of a missing person, as she had failed to return home to her husband, Tom Meagher. But it soon became a homicide investigation. Her disappearance attracted widespread media attention and a review of closed-circuit television images from the area of her disappearance. Her body was discovered six days later near Gisborne South, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) from Brunswick.
Adrian Ernest Bayley pleaded guilty to Meagher’s rape and murder in April 2013. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a 35-year non-parole period. His bid to appeal his minimum term, in September 2013, was unsuccessful. In May 2015, Bayley was sentenced to another 18 years and his non-parole period was extended from 35 to 43 years for three other rape convictions.
Ensuring that those in prison who are at risk of significance violence on release have access to interventions was a response to this case (and others).
The Solution
Partnering with Professor Andrew Day from Deakin University, HMA designed a suite of eight intervention programs. These different duration programs are designed to talk account of various risk levels, types of offending, and nature of the individuals attending the programs. The programs were built upon a common methodology of risk and need and responsivity, with offence mapping as a core tool to identify stable, acute and protective factors. Using a common methodology also allowed participants easy transition from one program to another, thereby allowing greater flexibility within the delivery team is.
The suite of programs comprise the following:
- See Change for Men Program (55 hours) – this lower intensity program is for men who have issues with violence but are unlikely to have a sufficient term of imprisonment to warrant access to the violence prevention program.
- See Change for Women Program (55 hours) – this lower intensity program is for women who have violence as there presenting issue.
- Talking Change Program (12 hours) – this program targets motivation for change and builds responsivity in those who will access longer interventions.
- U-turn Program (50 hours) – this individual program is specifically for men who are unable to operate within a group context due to behavioural issues.
- Inside Out program (90 hours) – this program starts the work while men are in prison and carries it through into a parole period on the outside.
- Making Choices for Men (100 hours) – this is a generic offending program
- Making Choices for Women (105 hours) – this is a generic offending program
- ChangeAbout (65 hour family violence intervention) – many criminal justice systems are having to address family violence as a core issue. This program of 26 sessions targets medium risk family violence offenders.
- In addition to designing the programs HMA staff were involved in upskilling 60 clinical delivery staff in the program theory, design and delivery emphasis.
The Return on Expectation
Ensuring that those who pose a risk to others have access to interventions is critically important. All criminal justice jurisdictions are task to reduce risk and provide as much as they can to encourage community safety.
The programs were assessed by the Offending Program Branch Accreditation Panel which comprises internal/external stakeholders and academics well-versed in correctional research and practice.
These programs go some distance to meeting that need to minimise the risks to women like Jill Meagher.
Take a look at what else people had to say:
A well timed and presented workshop from Ken. I came away more informed and with a better idea of the program. Many thanks!
Participant
Ken was very easy to listen to, very knowledgeable and conveyed the concepts superbly.
Participant