Employment - General

Background

The Department of Corrections and the Ministry of Social Development have been working together for some time developing initiatives to improve the employment outcomes for prisoners on release.

One of these initiatives is the ???Offender Reintegration Programme; Improving Employment Outcomes??? which sees the establishment of Work and Income services in the prisons, provided by full and part time on site Work and Income case managers and work brokers.

Services provided to offenders will be the same as those they would receive from a Work and Income Service Centre should they present to them after release. This initiative will assist with an offender???s reintegration, by offering employment opportunities and income assistance in a timely way, prior to release.

A Work and Income case manager and work broker will be dedicated to each prison to provide the services.

All offender involvement with Work and Income will be on a voluntary basis.

Initiative Aims

The aim of the initiative is to assist with integration by ensuring offenders have the opportunity to enter into sustainable employment following release.

This will be achieved by:

• Ensuring offenders are given the opportunity to identify their skills and develop a plan for obtaining employment and training.
• Ensuring offenders have a reintegrative plan that contains goals towards employment and income support after release.
• Work and Income staff consulting with CPPS about an offender???s proposed employment prior to release.
• CPPS staff being able to assess the suitability of any proposed employment and its location for offenders.