Just back from two weeks in Australia, providing training (with my associate David Prescott) in assessment, treatment, and risk management of persons who sexually offend to various agency, clinical, and law enforcement staff in Bundaberg (see earlier post) and, more recently, Corrective Services staff in Perth.
As you can see from the photo above, Perth is a lovely city with an amazing skyline. It is also apparently the "most remote city" on the planet.
While in Perth, David and I were hosted by the Training Academy of the Corrective Services of Western Australia. We had a very engaging week with a variety of Corrective Services staff, including psychologists, parole officers, policy staff, and assorted managers and other supervisory personnel.
Of interest, Australia continues to struggle with many of the same issues that we do here in North America. Specifically, Australia is exploring how they might institute policy regarding community notification (they do not presently do so), in addition to trying to establish good practice with respect to persons who are particularly sexually dangerous. Regarding the latter, Australia has existing legislation that is something of a blend of Canada's Dangerous Offender designation and US-style civil commitment without the civil commitment centers.
Circles of Support & Accountability continues to be a topic of interest down under, but those seeking to institute projects are struggling to find a toe-hold. Interested blog-readers from Australia should contact me so that I might link people with similar interests.
This blog post ends my month long travelogue that included posts from Latvia and Australia.
...back to business...
RJW
No comments:
Post a Comment