A rehabilitation program that has been “hugely successful” at Wellington Correctional Centre will be expanded as part of a NSW government investment.
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The Explore, Question, Understand, Investigate, Practice and Succeed (EQUIPS) suite of programs has been operating in facilities across NSW, including at Wellington, since January last year.
It will be now rolled out to more inmates under the $237 million investment announced by Minister for Corrections David Elliot on Wednesday.
The programs address aggressive behaviour, domestic abuse and addiction, and Corrective Services NSW senior services and programs officer Georgie Ross said it has been “hugely successful”.
“If an offender comes into custody [that] might be enough for some people to deter them, but [for others] it’s not enough – they actually need to address their offending behaviour,” Ms Ross said.
“It’s incredibly important for those individuals. It’s often the first time they are sitting down and saying ‘what led me to this offending?’”
EQUIPS Foundation, EQUIPS Addiction, EQUIPS Aggression and EQUIPS Domestic Abuse all operate in custody, but are also available out of parole offices in Wellington and Dubbo.
Each program contains five modules, presented in 20 sessions over ten weeks, and can be continually delivered to inmates as they move between centres or out of custody.
Offenders can also undertake the programs more than once, as it often takes more than “ten weeks to change a lifetime of behaviour”.
“Personally, being a facilitator I’m very confident in the actual content of the programs and confident they do work,” Ms Ross said.
“From what we’ve been told by our director there has actually been research showing that they’ve been successful in their aim of reducing re-offending.”
While it is not yet known how much of Wednesday’s $237 million funding commitment will flow directly into Wellington, Ms Ross welcomed the government’s announcement.
“My understanding is it just means we’re able to do more of what we already know is working,” she said.
“We’ll be able to have more staff to run more programs and staff will be able to have more training.
“We absolutely believe in what we deliver. Group work is a challenge...but it’s really exciting as well. I think we’re very lucky that we get to help [people] change their lives around.”