News Flash

Members met on Thursday 15 July to work to address the ongoing issue regarding the Offender Risk Needs Inventory (ORNI-R) assessment tool.
The PSA wrote to the Department for Correctional Services (DCS) requesting information, analysis and consultation on a number of issues regarding the implementation, management, workload and resourcing issues the ORNI-R assessment has created.

The assessment tool, in conjunction with the Risk of Re-offending (RoR) assessment, is the primary method DCS has implemented to assess offenders needs to address the risk to the community of re-offending and the ability of DCS to implement strategies to manage offenders in custodial environments and in the community.

The ORNI-R has, since its introduction, created overwhelming workload and resourcing issues across the whole of DCS. The lack of available resources and the complexities of the tool has resulted in many offenders not having sufficient assessments undertaken in a suitable time frame. There is at present a significant backlog of assessments that would require a huge increase in resources to complete the outstanding reports and arising reports in a reasonable time frame. 

This means that offenders needs and risks are not being appropriately addressed or managed in institutions and in the community.

The PSA and its members have called on DCS to provide clarity as to how the ORNI-R can be managed and resourced, to provide information and statistics as to the gap between outstanding and arising reports and DCS current ability to undertake the reports in due time. The PSA has also requested DCS examine any other possible cost effective alternatives that may be applied that will better address offender needs and risk and be successfully implemented and managed across DCS.

DCS provided a response to the PSA's previous correspondence on the 11th hour. The PSA and its Representative's will meet with DCS to consult as a matter of urgency to address this matter. Should DCS fail to address the issues presented appropriately the PSA will implement strategies to deal with the ongoing issue.