After 10 years running the Public Prisons Service, General Manager Integration Phil McCarthy has a new challenge - to complete the realignment of services delivered to offenders that began with the creation of Corrections in 1995 and continued through the Integrated Offender Management process.
“It’s my job to identify opportunities to further integrate service delivery and to identify and resolve process issues and systems and relational irritants that are getting in the way,” says Phil.
Phil plans to quickly supplement his extensive knowledge of prisons. “As a priority, I want to spend time in a couple of Community Probation Service areas and to get some hands-on experience of the work done by Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation Society and Operation Jericho, among others.”
Phil is adamant about one thing. “Responsibility for service delivery remains with the existing services. This is not a takeover and the Integration Group will not grow,” he says.
Nevertheless, there could be new initiatives and realignments or business process changes within the existing areas but his role will not be to head a “reintegration service”.
Potentially, many service delivery areas will fall within Phil’s new role and, if the area involves more than one group or service, or another agency, and it’s offender focused, it could end up on the “integration” radar screen.
Prisoner activities and the way the Public Prisons Service interacts with Corrections Inmate Employment have been singled out by the Chief Executive for Phil’s early attention. The inclusion of the Department’s relationships with iwi and kaitiaki is also reflected in Phil’s assumption of oversight of the Treaty Relationships team.
But the major single area for which Phil has an overview responsibility is prisoner re-integration into the community. This straddles many parts of Corrections and the Department also partners with many government and non-government agencies including Work and Income, Housing, Prisoners’ Aid and Rehabilitation Society, Prison Fellowship New Zealand and others.
Phil says Corrections has come a long way in helping prisoners meet reintegrative challenges. For example, Work and Income teams have recently been established in all prisons and new reintegration case workers are being established to complement the work of Whanau Liaison Workers and others in specialist treatment units.
Probation Officers also have a vital interest and prison self-care units have been designed to support those with reintegrative needs.
”All this creates a need to ensure that services are coordinated and aligned and that we build on the tremendous progress we have made in integrating our operations, particularly through the Integrated Offender Management System, Regional Management Committees and the PRIDE initiative,” says Phil.
“But we still have work to do and I look forward to overseeing substantial further improvements.”
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ISSN 1178-8453