Reducing Recidivism and Delivering Better Outcomes for People in Custody through Innovative Design, Sentencing Reform and Alternative Approaches to Rehabilitation and Re-Integration Programs

In an era of record-breaking imprisonment and recidivism rates, the Future Prisons Summit has become an industry necessity. This annnual event brings together leaders of every aspect of the correctional system, from government, to community to private corporations. Everyone has a critical role to play. I felt honoured to hear my industry peers present their forward-thinking solutions and to do the same for them in return. We have a lot to learn, however if the collective interest at this year's Summit is any indication, field innovation and positive reform is indeed imminent. Thank you to the team at IQPC for hosting an insightful and inspiring event.

The Future Prisons Summit in Sydney was essentially a showcase conference of the amazing work being conducted for the provision of safer, cost effectiveness in building, management, and rehabilitation of this cohort, and service delivery within Australian prisons. The delegates and attendees were from various prison related services, and participated with vigour and enthusiasm; there was a plethora of information sharing and understanding of each of the service providers, and their respective innovative programs. I would encourage all industry participants within this sector to attend next year’s conference as the preliminary program looks extremely interesting and resonates with current trends.

For me Future Prisons is much more than a conference it’s a collaboration of industry professionals whom are passionate about improving prisons and operational systems. To hear from industry speakers and delegates in round table discussions covering design, technology and systems that all contribute to reducing recidivism rates of prisoners was fantastic. The opportunity to have a guided tour by the director of a prison and hear directly from young prisoners about their experiences was invaluable and quite humbling. If you want to learn, network and make a genuine difference in a challenging industry I couldn’t recommend this conference highly enough.