Crime Facts Info

No. 67: Prisoner post-release services

ISSN 1445-7288
3 February 2004

The majority of Australian prisoners will one day return to the community as only four per cent of sentenced prisoners are serving "life" sentences. A paper recently released by the Australian Institute of Criminology examines various issues linked to the provision of post-release services to prisoners. The paper draws on both international literature and a roundtable discussion held at the Australian Institute of Criminology. The optimal outcome for both the community and these returning prisoners would be if ex-prisoners not only ceased to re-offend, but also experienced improved well-being and productively contributed to community life and integrated into the life and activities of mainstream society. A post-release model such as the one proposed in the paper and detailed in the figure below, could achieve multiple ends: reduced offending, improved ex-prisoner integration with mainstream society and, ultimately, enhanced community safety.

Components of a model of throughcare service delivery to ex-prisoners

Source

• Borzycki, M & Baldry, E. 2003, "Promoting Integration: The Provision of Prisoner Post-release Services", Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, no. 262, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra.

Full report available on AIC web site: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi2/tandi262.html