Call for more prisoners to work on streets

More prisoners would work in the community to "repay their debt" to society, under a plan before the Barnett Government. File picture.
Source: PerthNow

MORE prisoners - including people smugglers - would be put to work in the community to "repay their debt" to society, under a plan before the Barnett Government.

A review of the state's prison system has revealed taxpayer-funded work camps are operating below 70 per cent capacity, despite nearly 100 prisoners being identified as fit for work.

Work camp prisoners perform community duties, from painting local churches, to general maintenance in hospital grounds and cemetery landscaping.

The camps also provide training and skills development, including how to operate heavy machinery and administer first-aid.

Inspector of Custodial Services Neil Morgan said the underuse of work camps was "unacceptable".

"They have involved a high level of public investment and need to be full or close to capacity to repay that investment," he said.

Mr Morgan said the department could increase the pool of prisoners in work camps by allowing Indonesian prisoners subject to deportation to work in the community.

There should also be more Aboriginal prisoners in work camps, he said.

Just 66 prisoners are working in four camps in Wyndham, Warburton, Walpole and Dowerin. At least 80 more are suitable for work, but have not been given placements. The review also highlighted an "alarming" number of Aboriginal prisoners being housed in WA's toughest jails, while non-Aboriginal prisoners were gaining minimum security ratings.

Mr Morgan said it "beggared belief" that Aboriginal prisoners weren't being given equal opportunities for rehabilitation.

"Aboriginal people constitute over 40 per cent of our prison population," he said. "If they are not accessing minimum security in sufficient numbers, the benefits of these facilities are not reaching a priority target group and public investment is not being maximised."

The number of non-Aboriginal people shifted to minimum security increased 62 per cent in the past three years.

For Aboriginal prisoners the rise was less than 5 per cent.

Opposition corrective services spokesman Paul Papalia said it was "scandalous" work camps were a quarter empty.

"Work camps are a successful tool for re-integrating people and preparing them to go back into society," Mr Papalia said.

"The Barnett Government has turned our prison system into complete shambles. You're putting relatively low-risk prisoners in with hardened criminals and you'll be teaching them how to become a proper criminal. It's creating crime universities."

Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis and the Department of Corrective Services declined to comment.

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