4 July 2007
The Department of Corrections is pleased to announce today's opening of the North Shore Service Centre by Corrections' Chief Executive Barry Matthews and Community Probation & Psychological Services General Manager Katrina Casey.
Chief Executive Barry Matthews says Corrections now has close to 140 Service Centres established throughout New Zealand and every one of them has a significant impact on the lives of the offenders they work with and the communities they serve.
"I know the 40 staff based in this Service Centre will appreciate working in such a modern facility, but at the end of the day, it won't alter the challenging nature of their work."
Planning and building for the service centre has taken over six years and the completed Service Centre is an important step in integrating what had previously been two sites says Mr Matthews.
"If an offender had been sentenced to both community work and supervision they previously had to report to two centres to fulfil their sentence obligations."
"The new centre will improve our service to offenders now that they only have one centre to report to."
Mr Matthews says if is fair to say that all work carried out by Corrections is challenging. Our key responsibilities are to protect the public and reduce reoffending which drives every decision we make on a daily basis.
"This is coloured by the fact that our clients are some of the most difficult members of society and that can put a real strain upon even our most experienced frontline staff."
The new sentences under the Effective Interventions package, which is soon to be passed, have created demand for new staff and the Community Probation & Psychological Service’s recruitment drive for around 200 front-line staff is proving highly successful.
The last six months has seen five probation officers, a senior probation officer, three community work supervisors and two administration officers appointed to the North Shore Service Centre to help meet the demand created by the new sentences.
The new service centre includes facilities such as three programme rooms and a whanau room which will allow an offender's whole family to be involved in their sentence planning.
ENDS
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