Biographies & Abstracts E-H
Therese Ellis-Smith is a forensic psychologist who has worked within the correctional systems of Queensland and Victoria for over 25 years. She has worked in operational and senior management roles in community corrections and custodial corrections, for both government and private providers. Currently a PhD candidate at Bond University, Therese is conducting research on arson in Australia focusing on perpetrator and offence characteristics of both current and historical cases. Therese also undertakes assessments for parole boards and has recently participated in a whole of department review of the Northern Territory Department of Corrective Services.
This presentation will focus on the design and delivery of criminogenic programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who are either in custody or under community corrections supervision. It will identify how correctional systems across Australia tend to respond to the needs of this group, and some of the problems associated with these approaches to addressing offending behaviours. Given the increasing recidivism rates for Indigenous Australians, it will be argued that efforts to date are both insufficient in terms of dosage, intensity and delivery method; and poorly targeted in terms of addressing the underlying treatment needs and contributing factors. Alternative approaches to the current methods of assessment and treatment in the correctional environment will be suggested.
Gerry Georgatos is a suicide prevention researcher and the convener of Humanitarian Projects at the Institute of Social Justice and Human Rights. Gerry helped set up and was a member of the national project, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Project. In the last 4 years he has written more than 400 articles on suicide prevention.
Gerry studied Philosophy, Media Studies, and Aboriginal Studies, holds Masters degrees in Social Justice Advocacy & Human Rights Education, and has done Doctoral research in understanding racism and the ways forward. Gerry sat on university boards and guided more than 100 former inmates and homeless individuals to educational qualifications. He has set up various projects to improve the lot of those disadvantaged.
Abstract: More than 80 per cent of the prison population did not complete High School, while more than 30 per cent did not complete Year 9. In the first year following release from prison, former inmates are at elevated risk to self-harm and suicide. In the first year post-release they are up to 10 times more likely to suicide, die an unnatural death – from substance abusing and risk-taking – than while in prison. The justice and penal estates require reform, with an onus on redemption, forgiveness, healing, well-being, counselling, building a positive self and enabling extensive education opportunities – restorative landscapes.
From 2005 to 2010, while in the tertiary sector and on university boards, Gerry Georgatos visited prisons, encouraging inmates to pursue education and upon release they enrolled into university or other educational institutions. Programs were created to support them from the point of entry to the point of exit – psychosocially and psychologically. This cohort had the highest student retention rates in their institutions. Not a single graduate has since offended and the majority have secured permanent employment. Both the justice and penal estates would benefit from transformative education and restorative practices.
Professor Joe Graffam earned his BBSc at Cal State U and his MA and PhD at UCLA. He worked within the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA for 5 years before coming to Australia. He holds a Chair in Psychology at Deakin University, where he is currently Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Development and Training). He is a Registrant of the Psychology Board of Australia and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). He has been conducting research into employment and community integration of people with disability and ex-prisoners for the past 30 years.
Closing the Gap: Enhancing employment opportunities for Indigenous people in the justice system and providing community transition support hubs.
This presentation focuses on employment as one key element in post-release reintegration as well as presenting a broader discussion of reintegration as a concept and as an achievable outcome. It begins with figures on Indigenous people in the criminal justice system, followed by some analysis of mainstream and specialist Indigenous employment services for Indigenous ex-prisoners. It next discusses the elements of designing for success in post-release employment support for Indigenous people. Finally, it discusses reintegration as a construct or idea and as a reality. An ecological model of reintegration is presented and “local community transition support hubs / networks” are suggested as a means of preventing entry and re-entry into the criminal justice system.
Keith Hamburger (AM) is Managing Director, Knowledge Consulting, Australia’s leading private sector corrections consulting company. He is also Managing Director, Holistic Justice and Community Services, a company bringing a holistic response to reduce high rates of imprisonment and recidivism for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australian Justice Systems.
Keith is a former Director General of the Queensland Corrective Services Commission, with many years’ experience working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in relation to their contact with the criminal justice system. He is assisting Keelen Mailman and other Traditional Owners on the Mount Tabor Healing and Rehabilitation Centre project.
Dr Janet Hammill coordinates the Collaboration for Alcohol Related Developmental Disorders (CARDD) formerly the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Research Network within the Perinatal Research Group at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research. An ethnographer, Jan weaves narratives of family history of health and life experiences into a biological framework that better illustrates the epigenetic and developmental burden placed on families. Of particular interest is the neurobiology of stress and teratogenic exposures that have influenced negative trajectories especially for Indigenous families and their children. Those exposed to alcohol in utero represent the most vulnerable individuals in Australia and the effects are being seen transgenerationally. While invisible to diagnosis, they are too visible in statistics that reflect high rates of maternal substance use, compromised perinatal outcomes, poor school achievement, behavioural problems, younger sole parenting, early criminality, recidivism and incidence of chronic diseases which manifest prematurely. Invariably having an FASD impacts significantly on overall access to equal life chances and pose critical and urgent challenges for remediation.
Having shared ancestry with the Gamilaroy people of the NSW Pilliga Scrub and of the first convicts into the area, Jan’s primary interest is to raise awareness especially among policy makers to alcohol and substance abuse harm and the pressing need for cross-disciplinary, evidence-based interventions.
Ross Homel is the Foundation Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University in Brisbane Australia. He has published nine books and 150 papers and reports and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. His major interests are in crime prevention, for which he has won many national and international awards. He was appointed in 2008 as an officer in the General Division in the Order of Australia (AO) for service to education, particularly in the field of criminology, through research into the causes of crime, early intervention and prevention methods.
CREATE-ing Pathways away from prison for children living in disadvantaged communities
The paper describes the CREATE model for community preventative action, and shows how it is being implemented in 10 disadvantaged communities in NSW and Queensland in partnership with the Department of Social Services and a range of state government and NGO partners. CREATE is an acronym: C- Collaborative; R-relationships-based; E – early in the pathway; A – accountable through setting clear, measurable goals; T – Training to empower the community workers to implement practices based on prevention science; and E – Evidence-based. Implementation is being supported through the development of a Prevention Translation and Support System, consisting of a wider range of electronic resources including innovative measures of child and parent wellbeing and a Creating Change Engine that supports practitioners through all the stages of the CREATE model. Use of the electronic resources is supported by Collective Impact Facilitators who provide guidance and technical assistance to coalitions of service providers funded through the national Communities for Children program.
