When perusing candidates’ CVs, it’s not often that salon owners will discover an interviewee’s qualification was completed…in jail.
And yet, that’s exactly what’s happening at Perth’s Bandyup Women’s Prison.
The Beauty Spot salon – which was built by inmates who gained bricklaying qualifications in jail – opened last month and its aim is to equip female inmates with a skill to help them gain employment upon release, and hopefully reduce their likelihood of reoffending.
With female inmates only making up 10% of the country’s prison population, Acting Deputy Commissioner for Offender Management Bindiya Puri told ABC News that the Department of Corrective Services was reassessing inmate programmes to ensure they adequately catered to women.
“Women have different needs and considerations and if we are looking at true rehabilitation, we have got to look at that diversity, we have got to provide different treatment – one size does not fit all,” she said.
It was with this in mind that The Beauty Spot was created. Learning everything from manicures to waxing and hairdressing, the aim is to equip inmates with not only the skillset, but also the confidence to succeed once they leave the confines of the prison.
“The Beauty Spot provides the opportunity for them to learn skills in not only the beauty industry, but also in literacy and numeracy, and how they can plan, organise ad communicate,” Bindiya said. “That holistic approach is really important.”
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