Queensland Corrective Services
Queensland Corrective Services
Custodial Operations
Custodial
Operations
December 2007
Custodial Operations
Queensland Corrective Services
Custodial Operations is responsible for managing the State’s 11 publicly-run and
two private correctional centres, which incorporate a variety of high and low security
facilities.
Prisoners in Queensland’s correctional system undergo constant safety and risk
evaluation, and are given a high or low security classification.
This classification determines if the prisoner will serve time in a high or low security
centre.
Many factors are used to determine each prisoner’s security classification, including risk
of escape and risk of harming others.
Through this constant evaluation of each prisoner, Queensland Corrective Services
(QCS) can provide the prisoner with their own individual rehabilitation program.
Contact details
Correctional centres
Arthur Gorrie
PO Box 1300, Richlands 4077
3212 0411
Borallon
PO Box 782, Ipswich 4305
5467 0011
Brisbane
Locked Bag 13101, Richlands 4077
Brisbane Women’s
Locked Bag 2500, Richlands 4077
3271 9000
Capricornia
Private Mail Bag 11, Central Qld MC 4702
4912 6200
Darling Downs
Locked Bag 9006, Toowoomba DC 4350
4698 5100
Lotus Glen
Private Mail Bag 1, Mareeba 4800
4093 3911
Maryborough
Locked Mail Bag 1700, Maryborough 4650
4123 7600
Numinbah
Private Mail Bag 1, Nerang 4211
5533 4131
Palen Creek
Private Mail Bag 1, Rathdowney 4287
5544 3700
Townsville
PO Box 5574, Townsville 4810
4799 8444
Wolston
Locked Bag 1800, Richlands 4077
3271 9500
Woodford
Private Mail Bag 1, Woodford 4514
5496 1111
GPO Box 1054, Brisbane 4001
3239 0596
Directorate
Custodial Operations
Custodial Operations
Queensland Corrective Services
High security centres
The State’s eight government and two private high security centres have a secure
perimeter to ensure containment. Approximately 86 per cent of the State’s incarcerated
prisoners are held in these centres.
Prisoners are managed according to their assessed security classification and particular
needs with the provision of opportunities for rehabilitation through participation in
education, work, vocational training, and programs designed to address offending
behaviour.
They are:
•
Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre (privately run)
•
Borallon Correctional Centre (privately run)
•
Brisbane Correctional Centre
•
Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre
Capricornia Correctional Centre
•
Lotus Glen Correctional Centre
•
•
Maryborough Correctional Centre
Townsville Correctional Centre
•
Wolston Correctional Centre
•
Woodford Correctional Centre
•
Low security centres
Low security centres differ from high security in that there is less reliance on physical
containment. To be placed in low security, prisoners require a low security classification
and an assessment as part of their sentence management as to their suitability.
Prisoners in low security centres are encouraged to develop increased levels of
self responsibility and, as in secure custody, opportunities are provided for their
participation in education, work, vocational training and programs.
Six low security facilities across Queensland hold approximately 14 per cent of the
State’s prisoners.
Low security centres are located at:
Capricornia Correctional Centre
•
•
Darling Downs Correctional Centre
Lotus Glen Correctional Centre
•
Numinbah Correctional Centre (male annexed to Darling Downs Correctional
•
Centre and female annexed to Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre)
Palen Creek Correctional Centre (annexed to Wolston Correctional Centre)
•
Townsville Correctional Centre
•
Custodial Operations
Queensland Corrective Services
Correctional centre locations
Lotus Glen
Arthur Gorrie
Borallon
Brisbane
Brisbane Women's
Wolston
Townsville
Capricornia
Maryborough
Woodford
Darling Downs
Palen Creek
Custodial Operations
Numinbah
Queensland Corrective Services
Correctional centres
Arthur Gorrie
Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre is privately managed and operated by GEO Group
Australia under contract to QCS.
It is the current remand centre for south-east Queensland with a single bed capacity for
710 prisoners.
Industries at the centre consist of printing, woodworking and textiles. These allow
prisoners to develop useful trade skills to assist with their successful reintegration into
the commuity.
Professional services are supplied to assist prisoners to cope with incarceration and
prepare them for release into the community. These services include psychological,
psychiatric, counselling and specialist referrals.
Borallon
Borallon Correctional Centre is a high security prison on the outskirts of Ipswich and
holds an average of 490 male prisoners. As of 1 January 2008 Serco Australia Pty Ltd
manages and operates the centre for QCS.
Programs at Borallon are broken into four different areas – planning (sentence
management); intervention (vocation, education and training); intervention
(criminogenic and personal development); assessment services and health services.
Borallon also expects all offenders to engage in full-time employment or education and
each prisoner employment position is assigned to a formal qualification.
Brisbane
The State’s newest correctional centre recently underwent a refurbishment and
expansion and now contains 540 cells and an 18-cell maximum security unit. Located at
Wacol, the centre acts as the primary reception centre for south-east Queensland.
Brisbane Correctional Centre operates a commercial laundry that predominantly services
hospital contracts and has prisoner employment opportunities within the centre’s
kitchens and grounds maintenance.
A variety of dynamic offender management regimes will be utilised in managing the
diverse offender population that will include mainstream, protection, serious/violent
and youthful (17-year-old) offenders.
Custodial Operations
Queensland Corrective Services
Brisbane Women’s
Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre, located at Wacol, accommodates up to 258
prisoners across two accommodation areas – secure cells and residential cells. It also
acts as the only reception, assessment and placement centre for female prisoners in
southern Queensland.
A purpose-built area accommodates up to eight women who are approved to have their
children reside with them in custody.
The centre has a structured daily program consisting of industry, education and
vocational training programs that provide opportunities to address offending behaviour,
and a range of activities designed to enhance personal development.
The Helana Jones Centre and Numinbah (female) Correctional Centre are annexures to
this centre.
The Helana Jones Centre, located at Albion, accommodates up to 25 low risk female
prisoners in home style accommodation. The Helana Jones Centre also accomodates up
to five children of female prisoners who have been approved to have their children with
them in custody.
Capricornia
Capricornia Correctional Centre, which is located 20 kilometres north of Rockhampton,
provides facilities for remand, reception and sentenced prisoners, with a total capacity
of 488 male prisoners.
The centre manages all classifications of prisoners and offers a wide range of programs
and services to prisoners, as well as providing an environment devoted to integrated
vocational education and training.
The centre has secure and residential accommodation for high security prisoners and a
farm complex for low security prisoners.
Darling Downs
Darling Downs Correctional Centre is located approximately 15 kilometres south west of
Toowoomba in southern Queensland.
The centre has a capacity of 140 adult male offenders in self-contained accommodation
units.
The prisoners are encouraged to participate in a range of programs including education,
self-development and vocational training courses.
All prisoners are required to work and develop work skills to use on release.
Employment is available in a number of areas including prisoner services, maintenance
of building and grounds, and working in the centre’s modern dairy and farm.
Custodial Operations
Queensland Corrective Services
Numinbah (male annexed to Darling Downs Correctional Centre and female annexed to
Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre)
Numinbah Correctional Centre is a low security centre located 100 kilometres south of
Brisbane in the Gold Coast hinterland.
Numinbah provides accommodation for up to 104 male prisoners and 25 female
prisoners.
The centre encourages a self-directed rehabilitation model to prepare prisoners for
release to the community or community based supervision.
Lotus Glen
The Lotus Glen Correctional Centre, located 25 kilometres south of Mareeba, provides a
remand and reception function north of Innisfail.
The centre services the Cape York Region including Cairns, isolated communities and
Torres Strait Islands. Its prisoner population is generally comprised of between 60 to 65
per cent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The centre provides prisoners with meaningful work opportunities in industry and farm
work areas which provides skills that can be used by the prisoners on release in the
local region.
Maryborough
Maryborough Correctional Centre, located about seven kilometres north of
Maryborough, is a multi-purpose, secure custody facility, which accommodates secure
and residential accommodation.
It is also a remand and reception centre for offenders from Bundaberg to Gympie.
The centre is considered to be one of the safest in the world, using state-of-the-art
technology such as drug and contraband scanners, and high-tech equipment capable of
detecting sound and movement around the perimeter.
Townsville
Townsville Correctional Centre comprises a secure centre for high security male and
female prisoners, a farm complex for low security males and a women’s residential area.
The centre’s capacity is 446 prisoners.
The centre also provides a six-bed safety unit for the management of “at risk” prisoners
and a four-bed hospital for prisoners requiring medical assistance.
The centre supports laundry, tailor shop, plant nursery and farm industries for
employment of prisoners. In addition to centre requirements, the laundry and tailor
shop provide services under contract to the community and a farm produces fruit and
vegetables for centre consumption.
Custodial Operations
Queensland Corrective Services
Wolston
Wolston Correctional Centre, adjacent to Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre,
accommodates 600 protection prisoners.
Ferrous metal, steel fabrication, paint and powder coating are the major industrial
workshops at Wolston Correctional Centre. Industries operate seven days a week, 12
hours a day.
The centre takes an integrated approach to the delivery of services to prisoners through
a structured day timetable, which enables half of the prisoners employed in industries
to work in the morning and the other half in the afternoon.
This allows workers to attend programs, education, vocational training and to use other
prisoner services during the part of the day they are not required for work.
Palen Creek (annexed to Wolston Correctional Centre)
Palen Creek Correctional Centre is situated about 100 kilometres south of Brisbane and
is designed for low security male prisoners.
The centres operates industries such as cattle (the centre has a mixed herd of
approximately 300 beef cattle) and farm produce which supply the centre’s kitchens.
By striving to achieve a world class correctional centre within an open campus style rural
environment, the centre maximizes opportunities for prisoners to participate in and
benefit from high quality rehabilitative programs.
Woodford
Woodford Correctional Centre is situated about 100 kilometres north of Brisbane in the
rural community of Woodford.
The centre is specifically-designed for high security male prisoners with a capacity of
988 prisoners in single cell accommodation.
It incorporates state-of-the-art physical and electronic security systems while
maintaining a very interactive staff/prisoner management regime.
Woodford Correctional Centre has a very large industries base with 15 workshops that
include furniture manufacturing, steel products manufacturing and upholstery.
Recently the centre has introduced the manufacture of polyethylene rainwater tanks and
steel rainwater tanks.
This venture allows Woodford to directly align the training of prisoners with an industry
sector that is suffering from chronic staff shortages, providing prisoners with vital
employment skills for use when they are released.
Custodial Operations
Queensland Corrective Services
Prison industries
Prison industries are a key element of QCS’ goal of rehabilitating offenders. Farming or
industry activities are located within all 13 of Queensland’s correctional centres.
Industry activities include laundry, timber products, bakery, metal products, textile
products, assembly and packing, painting and powder coating, dairy, beef and crop
production.
The industry activities at each centre, and the markets they operate in, are selected
to ensure there is minimal impact on local business. Many of these activities provide
goods for use in the prisons and help reduce the cost of running facilities.
All industry activities available to offenders are designed to help them break the cycle
of re-offending and become responsible, contributing members of society after their
release.
Intervention and rehabilitation
QCS offers prisoners a range of programs, activities and treatment services that aim to
lower the risk of further offending and meet the needs of offenders.
Education and vocational programs provide offenders in custody with valuable skills
and training to improve their literacy and educational levels, and to improve their
employment opportunities. The programs also play an integral part in the management
and rehabilitation of prisoners.
Self-expression through creative endeavours also assists with emotional rehabilitation.
Many prisoners take the opportunity to participate in art and craft workshops, either
discovering talents for the first time or continuing to develop skills learnt prior to their
imprisonment.
The Throughcare service provides an offender-centred framework, which uses risks and
needs assessments to plan an integrated and individualised whole-of-sentence case
management model for each individual offender.
QCS also offers a range of programs and interventions to assist prisoners to confront
their criminal behaviour, and develop pro-social skills and techniques to control their
behaviour and avoid situations that may lead to further offending. These programs
target specific behaviour relating to substance abuse, violence and sexual offences.
The Agency also provides a Transitional Support Service to plan for successful resettlement in the community after release, including linkages to relevant communitybased service providers who continue to provide assistance to offenders in the
community after their release.
Advance2work assists prisoners immediately prior to their release, and after release, to
gain and retain employment. The program helps with literacy and numeracy skills, living
skills, as well as vocational training and job search placement.
Custodial Operations
Queensland Corrective Services
Work camp locations
LOTUS GLEN
Innisfail
Male Work Camps
TOWNSVILLE
Bowen
*
Julia Creek
*
Female Work Camps
Correctional centres
Winton
Boulia
Clermont
CAPRICORNIA
Springsure
Blackall
Charleville
Mitchell
DARLING DOWNS
Warwick
St George
Dirranbandi
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Custodial Operations
*
BRISBANE
WOMEN'S
Queensland Corrective Services
Work program
The Work Program is one of the most successful prisoner rehabilitation programs in
Queensland, injecting around $1.5 million a year into regional Queensland.
The program – originally known as the Work Outreach Camps (WORC) program – began
in early 1990 when a crew of prisoners and officers were sent to the flooded town of
Charleville to assist with the clean up.
Now, almost two decades later, the program continues to provide regional communities
with a valuable source of labour, while also providing prisoners with an opportunity to
make reparation to communities and gain valuable skills.
Prisoners perform a multitude of tasks, including maintenance of fences, cemeteries,
playgrounds and showgrounds, and participate in many restoration and general
maintenance projects.
The program is a positive correctional experience that not only puts prisoner labour
to work – providing prisoners with important opportunities to make reparation to the
community and develop needed skills and work ethic – but also provides considerable
benefits to the people of regional Queensland.
The State’s 13 Work camps are aligned to local correctional centres.
Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre manages the women’s Work camp at:
•
Warwick
Capricornia Correctional Centre manages the Work camps at:
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Clermont
•
Blackall
•
Springsure
Darling Downs Correctional Centre manages the Work camps at:
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Mitchell
•
Dirranbandi
•
St George
•
Charleville
Lotus Glen Correctional Centre manages the Work camp at:
•
Innisfail
Townsville Correctional Centre manages the Work camps at:
•
Boulia
•
Julia Creek
•
Winton
•
Bowen (women’s)
Custodial Operations
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Queensland Corrective Services
Queensland Corrective Services
GPO Box 1054
Brisbane, Qld 4001
For further publications on Queensland Corrective Services,
visit our website at
www.correctiveservices.qld.gov.au
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Custodial Operations