A support program offering housing, drug, mental health and other support services to high-risk criminals has failed to reduce reoffending, and those taking part are actually more likely to end up back in jail.
The Local Co-ordinated Multiagency (LCM) offender management was launched in 2017 to increase access to various services with the aim of disrupting cycles of crime and domestic violence.
An evaluation of the program by the New South Wales (NSW) Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOSCAR) found no significant association between participation in the program and reduced reoffending when comparing LCM offenders to a matched comparison group.
The evaluation results released on Tuesday also found a 10 per cent increase in returning to custody within a year of being referred to the program.
Bureau executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said reducing reoffending was a difficult task, and programs often recorded little qualitative benefit.
“We often get mixed results with treatment programs,” she said.
“It is very difficult to affect behaviour change, and these are people who are already reasonably well entrenched in the criminal justice system.”
Importantly, Fitzgerald noted those taking part in the program were already considered either medium or high-risk reoffenders, and evaluations of the program were inherently flawed by the lack of a reliable control group.
“We’ve done this evaluation, but it’s caveated that we can’t be sure the comparison group is exactly the same as the treatment group,” Fitzgerald said.
She also noted participants may have seen benefits in other areas from the program beyond ending up back in prison.
“Maybe they’re more likely to be in employment, or reduce their drug use or there’s less disruption in the home. But we didn’t measure those things,” Fitzgerald said.
One of the measures that do work to reduce reoffending is community supervision, such as having to report to a parole officer, she said.
Run jointly by the Department of Communities and Justice, NSW Police and NSW Health. the LCM has been operating since September 2017 in Liverpool, Parramatta, and Dubbo.
Since 2019 the LCM has also been running in Campbelltown, Mount Druitt, Wollongong, Newcastle, Moree, Taree and Wagga Wagga.
A spokeswoman for Corrective Services NSW said no additional funding was allocated to the program, which was primarily an amalgamation of existing services.
