BUSINESS leaders were given a behind-the-scenes look at an employment model for former prisoners during the Swan Chamber of Commerce’s transforming lives through employment tour in Hazelmere.

The April 30 morning tour showcased Hanssen Construction’s Stirling Crescent facility and visitors were guided to a circle of chairs beneath the trees in the yard behind the warehouse where former detective turned prisoner rehabilitator Chris Bown vetted ex-prisoners for rehabilitation.

Mr Bown spent more than 15 years with the WA Police Force before leaving policing in 2015 to join Hanssen.

As reported in Ex-cop turned prisoner rehabilitator (Echo News, January 12, 2024), Mr Bown worked with Hanssen founder Gerry Hanssen to develop a program that offered structured employment pathways for former prisoners.

“Prisons are not working – they’re making people worse, not better,” Mr Bown said.

“We spent $3000 a day locking kids up to make them worse.

“One of the most frustrating things for me as a copper was dropping young boys of 13-14 years of age at a detention centre where I knew they were going to come out worse because 13 to 14-year-old kids, all they want to do is fit in.

“So, they adapt to the environment that they’re put in and they become like the people in there and we literally set them up for a life of crime when they’re very young and some of them never break out of that.”

Hanssen managing director Darren Linton said employing ex-prisoners was not a one-way road, as employers and employees both benefitted from the model.

“We gave opportunities to people to get out of prison and get their foot in employment and do well for themselves and the family,” he said.

“And it’s benefited us greatly because some of these workers are some of our leading hands and some of the best workers we have.”

Mr Bown said the repeated knockbacks ex-prisoners receive from trying to find employment after serving time often compelled them to return to the familiar, so he wanted to break that cycle.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realise what they’re going to do,” he said.

“They’re going to go back to their old ways and their old mates.

“But what is going to fix it is men that rise up and lead and be role models.

“When these guys post photos of themselves working, it goes out to so many people and so many people see that, and they aspire to be like them.”

Thrive Integration participant Brody Hill has been in and out of prison since he was a child and said being employed for the first time at 26-years-old was a game-changer.

“I got locked up at the age of seven for smashing my principal’s car,” he said.

“I was bad – never liked being at home because mum and dad (were) drinking all the time so I’d always run off and that’s where it started, and I was just in and out of juvie at a young age.

“It just took me so long to just realise it’s not life, man.

“Because most of my life has been beyond a door and watching four walls and you can’t wake up on the wrong side of bed.

“Otherwise, in jail, you get forced what to do and there is no answers to questions but you’ve got to do it like, ‘yes boss,’ and if you don’t, they’ll make it hard for you.

“I just don’t want my kids to go through the same sh*t I’ve been through.

“Lost family, my nanas, pops, best mates – my best mate, who I went to daycare and grew up with, died two weeks before I got out.”

Mr Hill said a moment that stuck with him was the first reaction his eldest daughter had when he was released, as well as the realisation that life had much more to offer than jail.

“The day I got out of jail my oldest daughter was there as I was walking up the stairs with all my stuff, and she just came running and started telling me, and grabbed me, you know, and she said, ‘Dad, I never ever thought you was getting out,’” he said.

“I would never want to do that to her ever again – eight years of her life gone and my (youngest) daughter just turned four last month.

“It was my first birthday ever being out for her in her life and the first paycheck I got was $800, and I spent $700 and it was the best thing ever.

“I had to have it at home because I was on an ankle bracelet, but I just bought her everything and had a good party for her.

“I’m 26 now and I only got out about five months ago now and when they said to me you get $30 an hour, when in jail you get like $3 a day, I was like to myself, ‘I’ll do that there for the rest of my life’.

“At the end of the day, I’m only trying to get myself better at the moment.

“I can’t help anyone if I’m broken, and I’ve still got to fix myself.

“Might take a short time might take a long time, you just never know – it’s just a whole work in progress, you know?”

Mr Bown said although Hanssen construction was playing a critical role in being the first to try the model, more willing employers were needed to give opportunities in all sectors.

“We’ve literally got 30 people on our waiting list right now that I’ve interviewed that are all ticketed up, that are all ready to start work and we just can’t place them all.

“And you know the sad thing is I know that some of them are going to fall off and go back because we can’t place them.

“So, if anyone can help us, let us know.”

Mr Bown may be contacted by mobile at 0400 383 192 or by email at chris.bown@thriveintegration.com.au