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Speaker 1: Now we know a new industry Skills and Employment initiatives

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Speaker 1: being launched that's going to see Northern Territory prisoners undertake

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Speaker 1: training and education during incarceration in an effort to become

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Speaker 1: ready to enter the workforce. Now it aims to reduce recidivism,

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Speaker 1: to drive down prisoner numbers and also help employers will

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Speaker 1: fill critical skills gaps. The Northern Territories spending a total

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Speaker 1: of two million dollars on prisoner training for men, women

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Speaker 1: and youth. But joining us in the studio to talk

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Speaker 1: more about the situation for men and women is the

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Speaker 1: Deputy Corrections Commissioner Kim McKay. Good morning to you, Good morning,

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Speaker 1: thanks for having me, Thanks so much for your time,

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Speaker 1: Deputy Commissioner. How will the industry's Skills and Employment initiative

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Speaker 1: work exactly?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks Coatie. At the election, the government committed to

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Speaker 2: two major changes of work. One was sentenced to a

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Speaker 2: skill and the other was a revised work around sentence

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Speaker 2: to a job, So we're calling it sentence to a

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Speaker 2: job two point zero and sentenced to a skill. Primarily

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Speaker 2: is a modernization of our education system with a really

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Speaker 2: big focus on aligning vocational training and education whilst in custody,

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Speaker 2: towards what the demands of the community are as in

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Speaker 2: our growing employment sector across the whole of the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: So what kind of jobs or what kind of industries

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Speaker 1: might they be able to enter into.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a significant drive around civil and construction and

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Speaker 2: that's a lot of our historical spaces. But we're really

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Speaker 2: starting to work more in the service industries as well,

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Speaker 2: and looking into what we can do around tourism and

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Speaker 2: land management and a larger consideration around the more diversity

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Speaker 2: in our community and where we can actually spread our

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Speaker 2: employment options out into these more remote and regional locations.

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Speaker 1: Now, Deputy Commissioner, I know some people will be listening

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Speaker 1: right now and thinking, oh, what kind of you know,

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Speaker 1: like where are they going to go to work? Are

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Speaker 1: they going to be supervised? How exactly does this happen?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, you know obviously the time frames to deliver

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Speaker 2: them model is a three year plan, but a lot

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Speaker 2: of our work it has been around the Sentence to

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Speaker 2: a Job piece over the last few months, and the

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Speaker 2: Sentence to a Job will deliver four stages of support.

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Speaker 2: The first stage is around the original prison employment program,

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Speaker 2: which sees people working prior to release in real jobs,

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Speaker 2: and that's our low security, our more safe element of

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Speaker 2: the community, getting them ready to go out earning money,

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Speaker 2: working on financial security, and building their skills. The second

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Speaker 2: part is an expansion of the community employment participation model.

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Speaker 2: So we'll be engaging with a service provider in January,

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Speaker 2: and we've gone out to deliver that process as fast

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Speaker 2: as possible to make sure we've got a case managed

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Speaker 2: employment pathway for prisoners pre and post release, and they'll

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Speaker 2: have supported pathways up to twelve months post release.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So when you I mean you mentioned just a

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Speaker 1: moment ago that they'll be doing some of that work

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Speaker 1: prior to release. Does that mean they're sort of looking

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Speaker 1: in jobs within the prison or are they already out,

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Speaker 1: you know, doing some of these different jobs. And I

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Speaker 1: guess some of us might not even realize.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's two elements to that. The first element is

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Speaker 2: we are a large business and we provide lots of

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Speaker 2: meals and lots of laundry and lots of cleaning and

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Speaker 2: lots of services inside the prison. So that's our starting

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Speaker 2: point with our entry level employment. But this model actually

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Speaker 2: is a continuation out into community and prior to release.

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Speaker 2: We want to see people going into real employment and

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Speaker 2: to support that, we're working on a partnership with NTOBN

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Speaker 2: who are setting up an employment pathways model for us

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Speaker 2: through the Indigenous Employment Network in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I know for me, as I listen, I'm thinking, look,

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Speaker 1: I really think that there does need to be job

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Speaker 1: opportunities for those that are serving time in prison. And

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Speaker 1: you know, you want those recidivism rates reduced, and if

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Speaker 1: somebody is able to secure a job and if they

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Speaker 1: are able to have that purpose, then hopefully it helps

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Speaker 1: with the reduction of that recidivism. But then I also think,

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Speaker 1: all right, well, I want to make sure there's community safety.

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Speaker 1: So is there sort of oversight of the prisoners once

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Speaker 1: they are released into the workforce as that work does

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Speaker 1: get underway.

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Speaker 2: There's mixed oversight Katie, So depending on where people are

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Speaker 2: in their sentence journey. But when people are discharged to freedom,

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Speaker 2: they are at freedom. So the important link for us

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Speaker 2: is to make sure they're engaged in real employment and

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Speaker 2: they're engaged with employers who want to work with them

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Speaker 2: to provide those supports and have a full understanding of

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Speaker 2: the needs of people coming out of custody, and that's

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Speaker 2: part of the reason why we've done a lot of

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Speaker 2: work with NTBN, because we really believe that, you know,

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Speaker 2: understanding the community and understanding the cohorts of people we

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Speaker 2: work with and making sure they link to employers is critical.

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Speaker 1: Now I understand that the initiative is also sort of

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Speaker 1: in partnership with Charles Dalen University. You touched on this,

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Speaker 1: how like, what's the unis involvement in the initiative? How

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Speaker 1: does that work?

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Speaker 2: We have a service level agreement with Charles Darwin University

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Speaker 2: to deliver all of our training. They work with us

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Speaker 2: right at that front end stage to deliver language, literacy

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Speaker 2: and numeracy training, so entry level supports right through into

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Speaker 2: that vocational sector. And they've been working with us to

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Speaker 2: map out training to make sure we can get people certified,

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Speaker 2: to get people tickets and align those tickets to what

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Speaker 2: industry needs in the territory.

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Speaker 1: Are Deputy Commissioner in terms of the commencement of the program.

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Speaker 1: I know from what you've told us some of that

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Speaker 1: work sort of already happens. But with the new aspects

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Speaker 1: of this, when's it all going to get underway?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So obviously we're our training and education and employment

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Speaker 2: piece is a longstanding piece of work that we have

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Speaker 2: in corrections, but the model itself officially launched last Thursday

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Speaker 2: on the second. We launched it out at Darwin Correctional

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Speaker 2: Center with our Minister and three key partners being NTBN

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Speaker 2: in TRACK, which is a large Aboriginal employer in the

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Speaker 2: territory working in civil mining and in community services, and

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Speaker 2: also with child Starwin University, and we're hoping to get

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Speaker 2: some more media out after this morning's conversation with you.

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Speaker 1: How do you hope that it will sort of help

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Speaker 1: to see a reduction in that recidivism as well and

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Speaker 1: ultimately a reduction in crime.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I think one of the big things is financial independence, Katie,

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Speaker 2: and we know that financial independence is one of those

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Speaker 2: critical steps. The other aspect is about trust and opportunity

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Speaker 2: and one of the challenges that we've had in the

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Speaker 2: territory is to develop out that trust and opportunity with

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Speaker 2: the community and this is a big step forward for us.

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Speaker 2: And ten years ago this program was delivering about one

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Speaker 2: hundred permanent employees into the community and we're looking to

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Speaker 2: really drive that ahead and we've had a lot of

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Speaker 2: interest in this model, and we'll be really pushing it

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Speaker 2: over the next coming months.

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Speaker 1: Hey, before I let you go, how have things been

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Speaker 1: out at the prison? And I'm in across corrections right

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Speaker 1: across the board. How those numbers looking. We were catching

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Speaker 1: up with yourself and also Matthew Valley on a much

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Speaker 1: more regular basis because those numbers were huge. How are

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Speaker 1: they going at the moments?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Currently we've got a capacity of three thousand and

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Speaker 2: eighty two beds in our system, so we're still continuing

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Speaker 2: to transition from short term beds into that long term,

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Speaker 2: permanent space. But when we spoke to you last time,

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Speaker 2: you know, in around August, we were sitting around two

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Speaker 2: thousand and eight hundred and eighty five prisoners. Today we're

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Speaker 2: at two eight hundred and forty six, which is a

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Speaker 2: positive step forward, which means people are out in the community,

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Speaker 2: they're staying in the community, which is a good outcome.

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Speaker 2: Watchhouses are a bit of a challenge still in that.

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Speaker 2: Currently today we've got twenty one in the watchhouse. But

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Speaker 2: when I say a challenge, we were talking around hundreds

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Speaker 2: last time. So by the end of the week we'll

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Speaker 2: have those eight eighteen of those males decanted out of

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Speaker 2: there and we'll be back into low numbers. And I

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Speaker 2: think we're starting to see those normal fluctuations in and

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Speaker 2: out of watchouses after normal police business.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, that is good to hear, and it's good

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Speaker 1: to see those numbers dropping slightly. I hope that that

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Speaker 1: ultimately means that it's less people committing crimes. So you know,

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Speaker 1: hopefully we continue to see those numbers drop and the

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Speaker 1: rates of crime drop as well. With the watch housers.

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Speaker 1: So twenty one that was in Darwin, wasn't it. How

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Speaker 1: are we still utilizing our correction, still utilizing some of

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Speaker 1: the other watchousers and how they gone?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so today it was actually nineteen in Alice Springs,

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Speaker 2: so eighteen males and one female, so we'll be decanning

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Speaker 2: them out over this week. There was only one male

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Speaker 2: and Catherine one male in Palmerston today.

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Speaker 1: Right, Those numbers have significantly changed, haven't they. Is that

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Speaker 1: also I mean, I know you've touched on those numbers dropping,

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Speaker 1: but is that also really quite helpful that you've got

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Speaker 1: the additional beads.

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Speaker 2: Yeahditional beds, and I think what we're starting to see

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Speaker 2: is our programs and services starting to kick in. You know,

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Speaker 2: the more we can unlock, the more services we can

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Speaker 2: provide to people, The more staff we bring on, the

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Speaker 2: better the service provision we can provide, and our focus

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Speaker 2: on rehabilitation really starts to be at the forefront of

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Speaker 2: what we're trying to deliver.

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Speaker 1: Well, Deputy Corrections Commissioner Kim McKay, thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: your time this morning. Really appreciate you having a chat

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Speaker 1: with us.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Thank you