Community corrections plays a vital role in ensuring the safety of the community by rehabilitating offenders and diverting low-risk offenders from prison which helps to break the cycle of re-offending.
Community corrections involves the management and supervision of offenders in the community. These offenders are serving court-imposed orders either as an alternative to imprisonment or as a condition of their release on parole from prison. This means they must report regularly to their community corrections officer and may have to participate in unpaid community work and rehabilitation programs.
Community Correctional Services (CCS), part of the Department of Justice and Community Safety, oversees the delivery of community corrections in Victoria.
Community corrections officers (CCOs) manage offenders and are responsible for ensuring they comply with the conditions of their orders. Conditions may include participating in:
- appropriate educational programs
- community work
- assessment and treatment programs.
450,764 hours of mandatory community work was completed in 2019–20. More than 900 organisations benefited from the offenders’ work and skills.
Find out more about our community work program.