Residential centre or day prison? : the case of COSP

In 2008 the NSW Department of Corrective Services (DCS) announced the establishment of the Community Offender Support Program (COSP). COSPs are classified as residential centres for offenders on community based orders. However most of those to be built in 2009 are to be located in the grounds or adjacent to correctional centres. The Program is said to be able to offer short term and crisis accommodation for offenders, enhanced supervision for those experiencing difficulty on community orders, rehabilitative experiences, and assistance to make connections with community services needed for reintegration. This Comment raises questions about these claims. The rationale for this program is problematic. It co-opts the accommodation and broader integration needs of offenders and subverts these entitlement claims for other purposes which include the management of offenders on punitive community orders and the placement of sex offenders. Questions are raised about the effects of this location on the management of a large concentration of offenders and its rehabilitative program and about the claim to be non-custodial and community-based in the face of the introduction of more punitive community penalties.