Hon. Alison Xamon questions the Minister for Disability Services regarding interim arrangements for disability justice centres, specifically prison in-reach programs. The Minister provides details on program design, coordination, and the number of individuals in need.

AnsweredQoN 270Legislative Council
Asked
17 May 2012
Portfolio
Disability Services

QuestionView source ↗

DISABILITY JUSTICE CENTRES — INTERIM
ARRANGEMENTS
270. Hon
ALISON XAMON to the Minister for Disability Services:
I refer to the prison in-reach
interim arrangements to be implemented immediately while the disability justice
centres—declared places—are designed and built.
(1) What services will be delivered
under these arrangements?
(2) How will those services be
coordinated?
(3) How many people does the
minister anticipate are in immediate need of these services?
(4) How many of these people are in
regional prisons and which ones?

AnswerView source ↗

Obviously, I was really thrilled
last weekend to announce the declared places, but what never got as much
attention at the time of the announcement was the in-reach programs, so I am
really pleased that the member has brought that up and basically given it
another opportunity.
(1) Programs will
be designed according to the individual needs of each person in custody who is
found unfit to plead due to their intellectual or cognitive disability. Funding
is available as of 1 July 2012 and will initially be used in the development of
these programs. While the programs are not up and running at this stage, there
will be a short period in which that developmental process takes place.
(2) Individuals
will be referred to the program by the Mentally Impaired Accused Review Board.
The Disability Services Commission will work in partnership with the Department
of Corrective Services in undertaking the programs. Reports on the progress of
each individual will be provided by the Disability Services Commission to the
Mentally Impaired Accused Review Board. Therefore, to be eligible, people
basically have to be referred by the MIAR board.
(3) Up to 10 people at any
particular time.
(4) There is one person
that we are aware of at the moment and they are in Eastern Goldfields Regional
Prison.

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