HELP ON INSIDE AND OUTSIDE FOR WOMEN

The article "A woman's place"(Herald, January 8) overlooks the fact that
the Department of Corrective Services has extensive rehabilitation programs
operating inside jails and in the community.

A very small percentage of the 16,000 women convicted of a crime each year
go to jail. At present there are about 400 women in prison. There are
another 100 on periodic detention and 25 on home detention.

The women who do come to jail have access to drug and alcohol counsellors,
education and welfare officers, psychologists and a range of programs. More
than $70 million of the department's budget is allocated for the assessment
and development of inmates, with more than 400 program staff offering
services in all NSW jails. During 1998/99 these workers provided services
to inmates on 245,109 occasions, an increase of more than 67,000 on the
previous year.

The department also supervises more than 17,000 people in the community
(about 3,000 of whom are women). This includes people on community service
orders, home detention and probation or parole.

About $40 million of the budget is spent on community supervision. More
than 600 staff supervise offenders around the State in programs designed to
address offending behaviour, to encourage offenders to complete their
community orders and to give support to offenders released from jail.

Increases in this department's budget are used not just to build new jails
but to maintain and expand programs that help offenders reduce the risk of
coming to jail in the first place, or of returning to jail once they are
released.

Leo Keliher, Commissioner, Department of Corrective Services, Sydney.