From Monday to Friday, you can find a group of inmates at South Coast Correctional Centre hard at work sorting out recycling items from other rubbish.
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This recycling centre is just one industry contained within the high walls of the South Nowra facility, a working prison that houses minimum, medium and maximum security male inmates.
Each year, the centre recycles about 2.5 tonnes of meal trays, about 50,000 drink containers, 52 tonnes of cardboard, 26 tonnes of commingled recycling (such as hard plastics and tins) and 330,000 foil trays.
The centre not only provides inmates with employment, but provides income for a charity whose services some of them might very well need upon their release from custody: Shoalhaven Homeless Hub.
Overseer Steve Orton said the program had generated about $20,000 since it began through a return-and-earn scheme.
Mr Orton said the recycling centre was built in 2019 with an expansion of the prison and was initially established with the aim of reducing the amount of general waste from the correctional centre going into landfill.
But then it was decided it would be a good idea to donate the money coming in to charity and, with the input of the inmates themselves, it was decided Shoalhaven Homeless Hub was a worthy recipient.
Julie Bugden, team leader at the Homeless Hub, said the money was valuable for funding programs and buying items such as washing machines and fridges to set clients up in homes.
Some of these clients were former prisoners, she said, including one man who found himself a private rental and set it up with the help of the hub, then went on to get himself employment.
Mr Orton acknowledged that sorting through the bins was not really a glamorous job, but for the inmates it was an opportunity to get out of their pods and do something.
Not only that, but inmates can also undertake a Certificate III in waste management, giving them a qualification that could prove valuable when they go on the hunt for a job on the outside.
"Once we're doing education modules, it's like they can see the light at the end of the tunnel and know they have something viable to use when they walk out the front gate," Mr Orton said.
It also benefits the inmates while they are still in prison: they earn extra money in addition to their usual allowance, which they can spend on what are known as 'buy-ups', such as cans of drinks and snacks.
One inmate who spoke to the Mercury said he did not want to work in the kitchen or laundry (more on them later), so that left the recycling centre.
"I've worked on a farm and around shit", he said, so he was "used to it". He said there were worst jails than South Coast Correctional Centre and there were "a couple of good guys to work for".
As for Mr Orton, he has been working at the prison since 2016.
He worked in the steelworks for 16 years and with BHP in the Pilbara for four, but said he came to a point where he needed to come home.
Mr Orton said this job offered him Monday to Friday work, a significant difference after 20 years of shift work.
He was using the same skills as a supervisor he had before, he said, just with a different crew.
But Mr Orton said he was simply not a supervisor: for the inmates, he was also a counsellor, a shoulder to lean on, "a bit of everything at times".
What's cooking?
Inmates can also earn a dollar in the kitchens.
South Coast Correctional Centre produces 80 per cent of the breakfast rations from the state's 12,000 prisoners.
It also makes for the state what are known as 'pucks': individual servings of dishes such as lasagne and cottage pie, which are frozen and taken to John Morony Correctional Centre, where other components of a meal are added to the plate.
About 40,000 pucks come out of South Coast Correctional Centre each week.
The salads the prisoners eat are made in-house (some also get sent to Long Bay) and when the Mercury visited, inmates were making portions of a ham and potato salad with fresh vegetables.
The inmates at South Coast Correctional Centre are served a rotating menu, with variations for vegetarians and those with religious restrictions.
Overseer Chris Clarke said the prison also put out surveys to the inmates to get their feedback on the meals.
This was not only for the inmates' benefit, he said, but it helped reduce waste.
"The feedback on meals lately is positive. It has improved a lot," Mr Clarke said.
Meanwhile, inmates who work in the kitchen all undertake a food safety course.
They can also opt to complete a Certificate III or IV in kitchen operations, with about 14 people undertaking those at present.
Cleaning up
Another part of the prison that employs inmates is the laundry.
There are two within the prison's grounds, one of which handles only internal items, and another in the minimum security area which takes external customers.
As in the kitchen and recycling centre, inmates can gain a formal qualification too, this one being a Certificate III in laundry.
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The laundry must maintain the same standards for cleanliness as those in such facilities as hospitals. The prison also boasts a furniture shop that employs inmates.
During the recent floods, prisoners built kitchens for the short-term accommodation that housed those who lost their homes.
South Coast Correctional Centre governor Larry Bolger said it was the role of corrective services to help get people back on the straight and narrow, and supporting charities was part and parcel of that. "We pride ourselves on helping charitable organisations," Mr Bolger said.
Changing focus
Mr Bolger has been in the business for 32 years, and in that time he has since a shift in the way corrective services approach offenders.
He said there was a focus now more than ever on the rehabilitation of inmates.
Where once the number of inmates participating in programs was important, Mr Bolger said, now it was more about the number who actually completed them.
"For the most part, inmates that stay and last the distance [in these courses] benefit greatly," Mr Bolger said.
In 2019, the NSW government announced it aimed to reduce the proportion of adults who reoffended after release from prison by 5 per cent by 2023, through increased and better programs and creating a prison environment that supports rehabilitation.
Not just a stop-gap measure
When it came to corrective services staff, Mr Bolger said many people came into the job intending to stay temporarily, but enjoyed it so much they stayed.
Among them is South Coast Correctional Centre's operations manager Darren Hill, who began his career as a custodial officer in Goulburn.
A carpenter by trade, he went into the job during a downturn in the building trade because there wasn't much work available.
More than 30 years later, he remains working in the corrections system and has spent the past 12 at the South Nowra facility.
"I'm still going back to building, by the way - it was a stop-gap," Mr Hill said, laughing.
What kept him from returning to his trade, he said, were the different opportunities available within the system.
These range from responding to critical incidents within the prison, to teaching literacy and numeracy.
Mr Hill has even worked to train new recruits in weapons and officer survival.
"I've always been a bit of a worker and looked for opportunities," he said.
Opportunity to recognise work of corrections staff
Many members of the community will not get to witness the work of corrections staff, but the head of one of NSW's prisons says these are passionate people who do a top job.
He hopes that their contributions to the community will be acknowledged when National Corrections Day rolls around next Friday, January 20.
"Staff in Corrective Services NSW... do an absolutely outstanding job," South Coast Correctional Centre governor Larry Bolger said.
Unlike other emergency service workers who were seen out on the streets, Mr Bolger said, members of the general public did not get to see or recognise what corrections workers did, either in prisons or in the community.
He said staff were confronted with traumatic situations, including violence and self-harm.
"We face what other people don't really want to face, every day," he said.
"It can be dangerous and challenging, but also rewarding."
Mr Bolger - who has a 32-year history in corrections, the past two in South Nowra - said his staff were passionate about the work they did.
"You have to enjoy it and have a passion to last in this environment," he said.
The 360 staff members of South Coast Correctional Centre are among 10,500 people employed with Corrective Services NSW across the state.
These include not only custodial officers inside prisons, but those working in Community Corrections, industries workers, psychologists, programs officers, security and intelligence staff, and administrative support staff.
These employees run NSW's correctional centres and supervise offenders in the community.
They also deliver programs that aim to reduce the risk of reoffending, support the rehabilitation of offenders and their reintegration into society, and make the community safer.
Fast facts about South Coast Correctional Centre
- Capacity of 930 inmates
- Houses just over 600 inmates at present
- Total staff numbers 360, about 250 of which are custodial staff
- Houses male offenders with minimum, medium and maximum security areas
- Accommodates both sentenced prisoners and inmates on remand
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