Women's Correctional Services Advisory Committee | Corrections Victoria

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- Legal and other professional visitors
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- Independent Prison Visitor Scheme
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The Women's Correctional Services Advisory Committee (WCSAC) was established by the then Minister for Corrections in 2003 to provide an external source of expert advice on the delivery of correctional services to women prisoners and offenders.

The precursor to the Women's Correctional Services Advisory Committee was the Victorian Women's Prisons Council, which was established in 1953 by Dame Phyllis Frost as a consultative council advocating for female prison reform. The council's voluntary members worked tirelessly to improve prison conditions for women up until its formal cessation in May 2002.

The Women's Correctional Services Advisory Committee is chaired by a nominee of the Minister for Corrections and reports to the Minister for Corrections. Ms Juliana Addison MP is the current chair of the WCSAC Committee. The committee comprises key stakeholders with diverse backgrounds who have considerable working knowledge and experience of the complexities and challenges faced by women offenders.

The committee's terms of reference are to:

provide advice to the Minister for Corrections on strategic directions and service requirements for women in the Victorian correctional services system
have input into the development of policy, including research and evaluation that leads to the development of best practice in the delivery of services and programs for women offenders and prisoners
provide a forum for discussion of ongoing issues that arise in relation to women in the correctional services system
consider matters referred by the Minister for Corrections.

Committee Members

Chair: Ms Juliana Addison MP, Member for Wendouree

Dr Kathryn Daley, Senior Lecturer & Program Manager, Youth Work and Youth Studies, RMIT University

Ms Nerita Waight, CEO Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service

Ms Julie Kun, CEO, Women's Information and Referral Exchange Inc. (WIRE)

Ms Melissa Hardham, Director of Policy and Community, WEstjustice

Ms Serina McDuff, CEO, Federation of Community Legal Centres (Victoria) Inc.

Ms Deb Tsortbaris, CEO, Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare

Ms Jill Prior, Principal Legal Officer, Law and Advocacy Centre for Women

Ms Rita Butera, CEO, Safe Steps

Ms Claire Seppings, Project Coordinator, Deakin University

Ms Dianne Hill, CEO, Women's Health Victoria

Corrections Victoria

Email

corrections@justice.vic.gov.au (External link)

Telephone

1300 191 835

Fax

03 8684 6611

Postal address

GPO Box 123

Melbourne

VIC

3001

Street address

Level 22
121 Exhibition Street

Melbourne

VIC

3000