Risdon Prison in Tasmania: Moving towards the
Kiwi way of working
Fourteen New Zealand Corrections officers seconded to help their Tasmanian colleagues move to the new 350-bed Risdon Prison have won high praise from Tasmanian Director of Prisons Graeme Barber.
“They were professional, friendly, and their feedback on delivering integrated offender management and case management was very well received by the Tasmanian staff,” he says.
Wanganui-based Midland Regional Manager Leanne Field says the Tasmanians are moving to a sentence management model similar to ours, and were impressed by the conduct of our officers and the effectiveness of our management techniques.
“I remember how surprised the Tasmanian Corrections officers were at seeing our officers confidently enter the exercise yards and walk among the prisoners,” she says.
The New Zealanders also learned a lot from the experience.
“In Tasmania, they worked in a prison system very similar to ours 20 years ago. This helped them appreciate the strides we’ve made here and what a positive impact those changes have had on our officers and prisoners,” says Leanne.
Corrections Officer Paul Thompson, who went to Tasmania, says the Kiwis got a warm welcome and invaluable experience of the operational differences between the Tasmanian and New Zealand corrections services.
“For example, several Tasmanian officers told me how much they admired the New Zealand method of separating remand and sentenced prisoners for management and security reasons,” he says.
All costs for the secondments were covered by the Tasmanian prison system.
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ISSN 1178-8453