Department of Corrective Services

There are approximately 3,500 members in the PSA who are employed as prison or correctional officers. The department has an annual budget of more than $650 million and employs over 6,000 staff.

Inmate numbers have grown from 5,000 in 1990 to more than 8,000 in 2003.

New prisons are being built at Wellington, whichwill be a 500 bed facility, and Kempsey, which again has 500 beds.

Parklea will be extended by 200 beds and there is a new prison for women on the outskirts of Sydney.

Apart from conducting business in prisons the department also manages a large transport fleet for conveying inmates and supervises custodies in a large number of court cell complexes.

For more information go to the Department's website.

Recruitment to Corrective Services

The department's website has recruitment informatiom for custodial officers (i.e. prison officers) and non-costudial officers (administration, probation and parole, etc).

In brief the non-custodial jobs are advertised in the normal public service way and can be found at Jobs NSW

Prison officers are recruited in groups as they have to go through a training course at the department's academy. In brief the procedure is:

1. Apply to do the entrance exam
2. Exam is in maths and English
3. do the psychology test
4. have a police record check
5. do a medical
6. have an interview
7. if successful a place will be offered in the academy
8. academy is a 11 week training course

Note: The department was not recruiting prison officer at 22/6/04 and probably not for another two months thereafter. Details will be put on their web when they do resume recruiting.

Contacting the Department

Department of Corrective Services
Roden Cutler House
24 Campbell Street
Sydney NSW 2000
webmaster@dcs.nsw.gov.au
Telephone: (02) 9289 1333
Facsimile: (02) 9289 1289
Postal Address: GPO Box 31, Sydney NSW 2001
Department's website.
Department's employment section.