1863 (2024). Dr Tracey McLellan to the Minister of Corrections

1863 (2024). Dr Tracey McLellan to the Minister of Corrections: How many and what percentage of remand accused prisoners will be able to undertake non-offence-based rehabilitation quarterly and annually, by prison facility?

Hon Mark Mitchell: Through an amendment I have proposed to the Corrections Amendment Bill (the Bill) – currently being assessed by the Justice Committee – it will be explicit in the Corrections Act that approximately 1,360 additional remand-convicted prisoners will be able to access offence-focused rehabilitation programmes. These prisoners are people who have been convicted of a crime but are awaiting sentencing. They make up about 35 percent of all remand prisoners and about 15 percent of the total prison population. Remand-convicted prisoners should not have to wait until sentencing before they can begin programmes focused on addressing their offending. While the provision of non-offence-focused programmes to remand-accused prisoners is occurring across the country, my proposed amendments to the Bill include a clear expectation that remand-accused prisoners will be provided with reintegration and other non-offence-focused support while in prison. Due to the uncertainty of how long people may spend as a remand-accused prisoner, Corrections cannot estimate how many remand-accused prisoners will undertake non-offence-focused programmes and services. I am further advised that the number of prisoners who can access programmes at any one time varies on a regular basis due to the length, number and availability of programmes and interventions. For example, a rehabilitation programme may be run several times a year, across several prisons, with a different number of people attending these programmes in each of those prisons. Therefore, projections of this nature are not possible without assumptions being made on the availability of all programmes, something I am not willing to ask of my officials. This is also my response to WPQ 1864 (2024), WPQ 1865 (2024) and WPQ 1866 (2024).