Commissioner Payne says they have a whole raft of initiatives as part of their new purpose and direction strategy.

Some of these include looking further at the success of working camps and alternatives to custody.

“We have a work camp at Nhulunbuy and we have a work camp at Tennant Creek,” he said.

“The Barkly Work Camp at Tennant Creek has become an integral part of the community; where possible we try and ensure people from the Barkly area use that as a reintegration point.

“Whether such a facility – particularly because Katherine is so close to Darwin - but whether such a facility is something that could be envisaged for here is something I’d love to take a look at.”

Eligible prisoners can complete the end of their sentence at working camps, where they take part in beautification projects and community maintenance jobs.  

He said they were also working closely with other government and non-governmental organisations to give people opportunities and to make sentencing a last resort. 

“We’re working very closely with communities so that if there’s opportunities to perhaps be sentenced to a community supervision order as opposed to going into custody - these are all the things we think are really important,” he said.

“We’re looking at every opportunity we can to assist police, to assist other government departments and to give opportunities to the judiciary where we possibly can, to be able to provide a safe and effective way of being able to rehabilitate and to change an individual’s behaviour patterns so they’re not offending into the future.”

After temporarily filling the position, Commissioner Payne was appointed to the role full time in September 2016. Prior to this he spent 33 years in the Northern Territory Police Force, and was the NTPFES Deputy Commissioner.

Upon being sentenced and entering a correctional facility, the first thing that happens is criminal tendencies and needs are assessed. 

Commissioner Payne said this included what places a person at greatest risk of committing offences, associates outside of prison, previous criminal history and if they have they only ever known offending in the community.

“We can work on those things through therapeutic programming and behavioural management skills for them to avoid getting themselves into trouble,” he said.

“Some of it is their education, some of it’s their ability to go out and get jobs and put a roof over their head.

“A lot of times people fall into a life of crime, or a life of violence that leads to crime, because some of the basic building blocks, they haven’t been able to develop.”

From there, an offender management plan is constructed and Correctional Services works on these key elements while prisoners are in custody.

A new Aboriginal Justice Unit was launched within the Department of Attorney-General and Justice on July 5.

The six-member team will spend the next 12 months consulting with communities across the Northern Territory.

They will lead the creation of the Aboriginal Justice Agreement, which will:

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Natasha Fyles said in order to build stronger communities, the government must listen to Aboriginal Territorians and their experiences with the justice system.

“We know that the Territory has unacceptably high rates of Indigenous incarceration and that re-offending rates are too high,” she said.

“Acknowledging that almost 85 per cent of the NT’s prison population identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is fundamental to designing procedures and programs that align with world’s best practice.

"In particular, this means providing meaningful education and employment opportunities for all prisoners so that we end the revolving door of crime and incarceration and getting people on the right path."

The Katherine Youth Justice Reinvestment Working Group (KYJRWG) has been working with the community to lobby for youth justice issues and reinvestment. 

Solicitors Thomason Opie and Rebecca Plummer are co-chairs of the community and shared their thoughts on the announcement. 

"The Katherine Youth Justice Reinvestment Group welcomes the launch of the Aboriginal Justice Unit. We look forward to discussing the issues of our region and offering practical solutions to reduce Katherine's rates of youth crime,” they said.

“Our group focuses on reducing offending by reforming the justice system and introducing programs, activities and services that are designed to address the underlying causes of youth crime.”

Ensuring they we don’t travel in the footsteps of the past is a big focus for Commissioner Payne in the wake of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.

“The Royal Commission has presented a raft of confrontational images to us all,” Commissioner Payne said.

“[We’re looking at] how do we, as an organisation and as a public sector within a government framework, make sure we can not repeat any mistakes of the past that the Royal Commission has identified.

“And then to work very hard as Corrections to make sure the recommendations that will flow from the Royal Commission are implemented.”