Published Wednesday, 30 May, 2007 at 05:33 PM
Minister for Police and Corrective Services
The Honourable Judy Spence
SPENCE ANNOUNCES PERMANENT PAROLE OFFICE FOR LONGREACH
The Minister for Police and Corrective Services, Judy Spence today announced that a permanent Probation and Parole Office will be established at Longreach as part of the biggest overhaul of the system in 15 years.
“This is part of a $57.5 million four year overhaul and is one of 33 Probation and Parole Offices and 118 reporting centres operating across the state,” Ms Spence said.
“These offices deliver tough new supervision and surveillance of those serving community based sentences or released on parole and supervision orders.”
Ms Spence said Longreach had previously been serviced by staff from the Emerald Probation and Parole Office who travel to the area every four weeks to deliver services .
“The Longreach office will provide services to all communities in the central west which covers an area almost twice the size of Victoria and includes the communities of Alpha, Jericho, Blackall, Barcaldine, Winton, Itfracombe, Windorah, Jundah, Stonehenge and Isisford,” Ms Spence said.
“We are getting rid of the drive in and drive out, fly in and fly out mentality when it comes to delivering services in rural and regional Queensland.
“Tougher supervision at the local level within these communities means that more offenders can serve their sentences in the community and have a better chance of getting their lives back on track.”
Ms Spence said there are 35 offenders in the area subject to supervision under the full range of court based and post prison orders.
“At any one time we have about 5600 offenders in prison and more than 12,000 offenders serving their sentence in the community,” Ms Spence said.
“The overhaul of Probation and Parole delivers a tough system of assessment, supervision and surveillance of offenders. In addition this initiative provides stronger links with the courts and the judiciary and a range of new rehabilitative programs and services to assist offenders to reintegrate into the community.
“Offenders serving their sentence in the community completed over 24,000 hours of community service work worth $361,485 last year at sites in central and western Queensland.
“This is work that local groups would not have been able to afford and it’s always good when programs like this can give back to the community.”
Ms Spence said Queensland Corrective Services WORK camps at Winton and Blackall are also providing a strong contribution to western regional communities.
“These camps started when offenders went out to help after the Charleville floods in 1991 and now there are 12 established camps contributing thousands of hours of work on community projects and providing offenders with the chance to give back to the community as well as learn new work skills,” Ms Spence said.
“Last year the WORK program provided 94,000 hours to community service projects, valued at $1.4 million. From July 1, 2006 until the end of February this year, a total of 83,177 hours of community service work was completed by prisoners across Queensland."
Media Contact: Troy Davies 0439 673 287
“This is part of a $57.5 million four year overhaul and is one of 33 Probation and Parole Offices and 118 reporting centres operating across the state,” Ms Spence said.
“These offices deliver tough new supervision and surveillance of those serving community based sentences or released on parole and supervision orders.”
Ms Spence said Longreach had previously been serviced by staff from the Emerald Probation and Parole Office who travel to the area every four weeks to deliver services .
“The Longreach office will provide services to all communities in the central west which covers an area almost twice the size of Victoria and includes the communities of Alpha, Jericho, Blackall, Barcaldine, Winton, Itfracombe, Windorah, Jundah, Stonehenge and Isisford,” Ms Spence said.
“We are getting rid of the drive in and drive out, fly in and fly out mentality when it comes to delivering services in rural and regional Queensland.
“Tougher supervision at the local level within these communities means that more offenders can serve their sentences in the community and have a better chance of getting their lives back on track.”
Ms Spence said there are 35 offenders in the area subject to supervision under the full range of court based and post prison orders.
“At any one time we have about 5600 offenders in prison and more than 12,000 offenders serving their sentence in the community,” Ms Spence said.
“The overhaul of Probation and Parole delivers a tough system of assessment, supervision and surveillance of offenders. In addition this initiative provides stronger links with the courts and the judiciary and a range of new rehabilitative programs and services to assist offenders to reintegrate into the community.
“Offenders serving their sentence in the community completed over 24,000 hours of community service work worth $361,485 last year at sites in central and western Queensland.
“This is work that local groups would not have been able to afford and it’s always good when programs like this can give back to the community.”
Ms Spence said Queensland Corrective Services WORK camps at Winton and Blackall are also providing a strong contribution to western regional communities.
“These camps started when offenders went out to help after the Charleville floods in 1991 and now there are 12 established camps contributing thousands of hours of work on community projects and providing offenders with the chance to give back to the community as well as learn new work skills,” Ms Spence said.
“Last year the WORK program provided 94,000 hours to community service projects, valued at $1.4 million. From July 1, 2006 until the end of February this year, a total of 83,177 hours of community service work was completed by prisoners across Queensland."
Media Contact: Troy Davies 0439 673 287