Animal care and rehab

Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) has a range of animal programs which have vocational and training components for inmates in NSW correctional centres. All these programs are conducted as joint ventures between CSNSW and not-for-profit animal care organisations. All inmates who participate in these programs must undergo a specific selection process, must be willing to undertake training and have the aptitude to work with animals.

CSNSW provides custodial and community-based services and programs to reduce re-offending and enhance community safety. Therefore, the main focus of offender management is to provide programs designed to change behaviour and so reduce the risks of re-offending.

CSNSW also provides educational and vocational opportunities so that offenders can acquire skills to gain employment and lead productive and law-abiding lives once they have completed their sentences. In addition, offenders are expected to make reparation for their criminal actions and give value to the community. The animal welfare and wildlife rescue programs of Corrective Services cover all these elements of offender rehabilitation.

Apart from these animal care programs, CSNSW also conducts a number of commercial enterprises which provide offenders with valuable animal husbandry skills and employment opportunities in the cattle, sheep and dairy industries. For example, male inmates at Mannus Correctional Centre, Balund-A and Yetta Dhinnakkal Correctional Centre (Brewarrina) work with cattle and sheep.

Those inmates who have been classified to work on these properties are supervised by Corrective Services Industries (CSI) overseers and receive training in the management of farm livestock. For offenders who live in rural areas, these are important vocational skills which increase their employment opportunities after release from custody.

Female inmates at the Emu Plains Correctional Centre work in the dairy which supplies milk products to all correctional facilities in NSW.