There are more people involved in working with offenders than police and in the courts and now those who work behind the scenes have taken centre stage.
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Dozens of people from multiple organisations that help offenders and their families get onto the right track gathered at Orange Courthouse to celebrate Community Corrections Day on on Friday, January 19, 2024.
Among them was Orange Community Corrections NSW manager Michala Todd-Rowe and community correction's officer Eva Woods who supervises offenders in the community.
Before taking up the position to help people reduce their chances of reoffending, Ms Woods spent a large part of her career behind the prison walls in Bathurst and Wellington as a custodial officer.
"As a custodial officer, I was exposed to numerous difficult situations including inmate assaults, self-harm acts, riots, medical emergencies, verbal abuse, and threats," Ms Woods said.
"As a community corrections officer, I don't face as many of these situations, however repeated exposure to the intimate details of an offender's crimes can present its own challenges."
She said she initially became a custodial officer just before Wellington opened in 2007.
"I came across it because a friend of mine had already applied and had been accepted and was go do training and she suggested that was maybe something I would like to do as well so I sent the application off," Ms Woods said.
"I started in Wellington and got transferred to Bathurst after a couple of years then in 2019 I ended up coming and getting the position I'm in now.
"Here you are working with them and their family, you do a lot more of that case management.
"It is hard work and some people aren't yet at that stage where they are wanting to make the necessary changes but every now and again you do see that you are getting through.
"When someone does finish an order and we don't see them again you feel as if you had something positive to contribute to that."
After 16-years of working with offenders both in and out of custody, Ms Woods says the goal has always been the same, and always will be.
"Ultimately, the aim is to have an offender complete an order and go on to lead an offence free life," she said.
"However, realistically, it can also be about reducing the severity of offending or extending the period between offences, and we do this by assisting offenders to shift their antisocial attitudes by understanding the link between their thoughts, beliefs, and actions."
Ms Woods is among 10,700 Community Corrections staff in NSW who share that goal including about 5500 custodial officers, 2100 community corrections professionals, 1500 psychologists, programs, education, and industries employees, and 1600 corporate staff.
The offenders they help are people who have been sentenced to community corrections orders, intensive corrections orders and parole.
Ms Woods said corrections day was about getting the work they do behind the scenes "into the public eye".
"A lot of the time it is behind the jail walls or inside the office and unless someone's had personal experience with corrections because they are an offender or their family a lot of people don't really understand what we do," she said.
Orange manager, Mrs Todd-Rowe said it was about "celebrating the work we do everyday".
She said there are a wide variety of roles including case workers through to educators, psychologists and corrections staff who help people find the tools they need to reduce offending.
"We are here to celebrate the behind the scene work, we are working with the courts and police and lots of government and non-government agencies," she said.
"We work with our clients one-on-one and with their families."
Those who require Community Corrections help include people who are sentenced in court to community corrections orders, intensive corrections orders and parole.
She said it involves case managing individuals who have been sentenced in court so they can work on the things they need to so they don't continue to commit offences.
This is achieved through a domestic violence and aggression program as well as alcohol and drug programs.
Community corrections staff also help people before they go to court by preparing sentence assessment reports which look at an individuals background, attitude to offending, potential for re-offending as well as other relevant personal information for magistrates to consider before sentencing an offender.
Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
