Map of WA - Curtin Detention Centre visible

Bishop Saunders Visiting Team

Derby, WA, Australia

  CURTIN DETENTION CENTRE

My last report was published in August 2010. On the third of March, I visited the Curtin Detention Centre once again and have now completed the delivery of 10 desktop computers six of which were donated by Broome Tafe. They will be set up in the next few days and arrangements put in place to use them as a part of a computer learning centre as opposed to an Internet Centre. The idea is to give the detainees some basic computer skills so that when they are released into the community they will have one more skill at their disposal which will allow their assimilation to occur a little more gently. At this stage I have offered my services one day a week as a computer teacher and consulter but as yet how this might be put in place has yet to be discussed. Curtin has doubled in size since my last visit and there seems to be even more construction work going on as I write.

Bruce Needham is no longer Manager and has been replaced by Troy Sokoloff who I have yet to meet. Though there are more than 1200 single men in residence the centre seems to be running smoothly and much is being done to make their conditions as comfortable as possible. Bishop Christopher is making another visit to Curtin next week and I shall accompany him in the hope of meeting Troy to sort out how we can best assist them in the care and education of these transient people. 

 Yours in Edmund Peter Thrupp (cfc)