Lotus Glen kicks antisocial behaviour into touch

Lotus Glen Correctional Centre has used a touch football competition to curb anti-social behaviour of prisoners, hosting the inaugural Lotus Glen Correctional Centre (LGCC) touch football competition.

The brainchild of the activities team, the Prisoner Advisory Committee (PAC) and the Violence Prevention Coordinator it was run over eight weeks at the Lotus Glen Correctional Centre.

The aim of the competition was to promote prosocial behaviour amongst the prisoners in the months leading up to the competition as participation was governed by a record of good behaviour.

The competition saw over 150 prisoners participate in eight teams and all played a series of 30 games culminating with the grand final between the Crocs and the Kangaroos on June 6 which saw a win to the Crocs, who went through the competition undefeated.

There was also great support from the local Cairns Rugby League Club, the Northern Pride, who had their under 20s coach, strength and conditioning coach and a player attend to run the crew through some drills pre-game and offer some coaching advice.

General Manager of LGCC Mike Macfarlane said the competition caused a significant amount of interest from the prisoners when the idea was first promoted.

“We made sure that the prisoners knew that their participation in the competition would be governed by their behaviour, but the amount that initially signed on kept us busy from the beginning,” he said.

“As part of a violence prevention strategy at LGCC, we screened replays of the games we had filmed on the televisions in the prison and this created even more interest and we saw a positive influence on the prisoner’s behaviour.

We are getting lots of questions about when we are starting the next round of competitions, so we are excited to expand the competition to two events next year.

The guys really seem to enjoy the competition and it’s a good way to burn off some energy in a positive way while promoting good behaviour amongst the prisoners.”