Prison recruitment drive

Jack Harrison
Jack Harrison
The Department of Corrections, which needs to find another 70 staff for the Otago Corrections Facility (OCF) within the next six months, has launched a recruitment campaign to find the corrections officers it will need to handle the extra 150 prisoners coming.

It went to the unusual step this week of issuing a press release about the "exciting and challenging job opportunities [that] still await motivated individuals" at the department.

The extra staff are needed as the department starts work soon on expanding prisoner capacity at the Milburn site from its present level of 335 to 485 from February next year.

In the statement, OCF manager Jack Harrison said the changes represented a great opportunity for "responsible members of the community" to become part of a great organisation.

"Being a corrections officer gives flexible work hours in a close-knit community environment. To be a corrections officer, you need to have good people skills and a can-do attitude. This is an interesting and varied role - no two days are the same working inside," he said.

Corrections officers are responsible for ensuring prisoners are safely, securely and humanely contained during their sentence and they also actively work with prisoners to make positive changes to their behaviour.

Mr Harrison said the job also offered a clear career path for motivated professionals.

The department had several prison managers who have worked their way up "from the floor".

There were also specialist roles in areas such as dog handling, crime prevention and sentence planning.

Corrections officers get full training and support with a six-week initial training course and on-the-job training.


Working behind bars

- salary for corrections officers is $44,272

- Staff can progress to $54,529 before promotion to senior corrections officer.

- More information on recruitment available at www.corrections.govt.nz/recruitment.html


 

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