Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) has welcomed a report showing that some inmates who complete traineeships in custody are up to 60 per cent less likely to reoffend.
CSNSW Commissioner Peter Severin said the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) report, Vocational training in NSW prisons: Exploring the relationship between traineeships and recidivism, looked at almost 1,000 offenders released between 2010 and 2020 and found statistically significant reductions in the number of Aboriginal trainees returned to custody.
“While anecdotally, we know that education, training and job skills assist inmates to reintegrate into the community and live law-abiding lives, we now have the data to prove that traineeships work,” Mr Severin said.
“Inmates in NSW can participate in a wide range of industry traineeships, including logistics, warehousing, food processing, construction and business administration,” he said.
“Traineeships usually take about 18 months to complete and upon release substantially increase a persons’ chance of employment.”
Mr Severin said that over the past six months Corrective Services Industries (CSI) increased the number of inmate trainees from 250 to 472 in direct response to a draft version of the BOCSAR Report.
He said the Report found that 12 months after inmate trainees were released from custody there was a 17.55 per cent reduction in personal, property and serious drug offending among Aboriginal trainees; a 45.13 per cent reduction in property offending among all trainees; and a 60.79 per cent reduction in property offending among trainees aged over 40.
BOCSAR’s 20-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
