Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall, left, lobbying Minister for Corrections Geoff Lee during their visit to the Glen Innes Correctional Centre on Monday.
Wednesday, 19 October 2022
MEMBER for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall has this week sought the personal intervention of the Minister for Corrections Geoff Lee to reinstate a popular outreach program at Glen Innes, which saw inmates from the local Correctional Centre undertake various public space and community parks maintenance and upgrade projects.
Mr Marshall took the Minister out to the 106-inmate minimum security facility on Monday, to meet with the Centre’s staff and inmates and discuss the benefits of the program, which were put into abeyance during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
“In recent years inmates from the Glen Innes Correctional Centre were able to join a program that allowed them to undertake work outside the centre, primarily in and around Glen Innes,” Mr Marshall said.
“While supervised, the community welcomed the extra help to maintain local parks, paint buildings, build fences and generally lend a hand top keep public buildings and areas maintained.
“This all ended during COVID and the Senior Corrections Officer position was removed from the Centre, meaning the program has not been re-instated.
“I have asked the Minister to return the position immediately, which will allow the outreach work of the inmates to resume.
“The program was very popular – the inmates loved it and so did the whole community – it allowed great interaction between the correction centre and the community and I’m pushing to see this relationship reinstated as soon as possible.”
The correctional centre has a long tradition of working outside the boundaries of the facility and started life in 1928 as an Afforestation Camp, with logging and milling timber carried out at the centre throughout its long history.
The centre was also the home to one of Australia’s most renowned heavy horse studs and training centres. Inmates often travelled with their equine charges to shows and competitions.
“The centre is a wonderful facility with the main aim of being a pre-release centre for those sent for supervision,” Mr Marshall said.
“The community of Glen Innes and the district have always been an important part of that process and I am working to have those opportunities reinstated.”