Prisoners complete storm clean-up assistance

Corrective Services Minister Judy Spence has praised the contribution of Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) Work Camp prisoners who have helped with the south-east Queensland storm recovery effort.

Ms Spence said that at the height of the recovery effort there were 40 male and female prisoners, accompanied by six supervisors, helping with the clean up.

“Low-risk prisoners contributed more than 2600 hours of labour to the storm recovery effort, which equates to about $39,700 worth of prison labour,” she said.

“During the past fortnight, Work Camp crews have worked alongside residents, emergency services crews, police, army, council staff and volunteers in Brisbane’s northern suburbs as well as the Ipswich and Rosewood areas.

“Staff and prisoners were drawn from Capricornia Correctional Centre and the Darling Downs Correctional Centre, the Helena Jones Centre in Brisbane and the Warwick Women’s Work Camp.

“We were advised late last week that the recovery effort had reached a point where prisoner assistance was no longer required.

“The last crew left the Darling Downs Correctional Centre – where they had been accommodated at the end of each work day in Brisbane – to return to Capricornia Correctional Centre in Rockhampton.

“This has been another fantastic example of QCS officers and prisoners joining a storm recovery effort and contributing many valuable hours of assistance.

“I know the crews get a lot of this sort of work in the community – and will continue to do so in the future,” Ms. Spence said.

The teams assisted with sandbagging, chainsawing and clearing truckloads of debris.

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