Ararat's Corrections training complex will train 300 staff a year
Photos | An exclusive look at Ararat's state of the art corrections training centre
A role-play of an escalating situation that dogs will be trained to deal with at the centre.
Corrections Minister Ben Carroll and Corrections Commissioner Dr Emma Cassar officially open the facility.
Corrections Minister Ben Carroll and Corrections Commissioner Dr Emma Cassar are shown some of the kennels.
The facility includes a tactical training space for students.
An officer and a dog demonstrate some of the agility training dogs must be competent at.
A NEW $4 million corrections training facility was unveiled in Ararat Wednesday morning.
The centre has been purpose built to train about 300 a year staff from the Security and Emergency Services Group, who work in prisons and other Corrections areas, as well as police and security dogs.
The facility houses a gymnasium, recreation area, tactical training area, classrooms, dog kennels and training yard, office space, overnight accommodation, and amenities.
Corrections Minister Ben Carroll and Corrections Commissioner Dr Emma Cassar officially opened the facility.
"Corrections Victoria and Security and Emergency Services Group are doing a wonderful job in terms of getting rid of contraband, working with difficult individuals, but also right throughout our corrections system and our youth justice system, being on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week for some of the emergency situations that you are going to come across dealing with some of the most complex cohort members of our community," Mr Carroll said.
"It's great and it's a really important boon for regional Victoria to have this facility here.
"(It's) supporting the local regional economy, (as trainees will be) going out for a meal, going out using the surrounds of Ararat - the main street, the shops and cafes - I think it's a very important investment not only for Corrections Victoria but also Ararat and regional Victoria."
It took eight months to build and is located just west of Hopkins Correctional Centre on Warrak Road.
It follows the demolition of a previous training facility to enable the construction of the nearby Rivergum Residential Treatment Centre.
The facility is the second one of its kind in Victoria, with another one located at Lara.
Post-training, officers are based at four prison locations around Victoria, including Barwon Prison, the Metropolitan Remand Centre, Loddon Prison and Hopkins Correctional Centre.
They can be deployed to any Corrections facility across the state to conduct searches, patrols, or respond to emergencies, and include Passive Alert Detection and multi-purpose canine teams.
The facility will also serve a second purpose.
Prisoners at Hopkins Correctional Centre will work towards a Certificate II and III in Horticulture through a training arrangement with Federation University.
Currently the grounds of the facility are barren but under the training, prisoners will landscape the gardens.
Services manager Rhonda Hinchliffe said it will add to Hopkins' focus on education as a method of reducing recidivism.
"We have a substantial training environment. Most of our training is provided by Federation University happens in a vocational training environment," she said.
"We employ about 750 odd men there, and about 350 are engaged in manufacturing industries everyday and then we have another couple of hundred engaged in other service roles like working in the kitchen, laundry, accommodation units doing cleaning.
"The plan is that they work in the industry, they get relevant education and that will assist them into a pathway in that sort of employment when they leave the prison."
Ms said the plan was to get the prisoners currently enrolled in the horticulture and construction programs with Federation University to design the grounds and propagate the plants, and then go to the facility and implement the design.
"If we can get the guys into work, we're half way there to stopping re-offending," Ms Hinchliffe said.
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