Officers awarded Australians Corrections Medal

The Governor of Queensland, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, conferred the Australian Corrections Medal (ACM) on current QCS officer Ms Simone Lourigan and former officer Ms Jenny Lynas at an investiture ceremony at Government House in Brisbane yesterday.

The ACM is awarded for distinguished service by an operational member of an Australian civilian correctional service and holds substantial significance within the Australian Honours System.

The medal was established in 2017, by recognition of Her Majesty, the Queen and was awarded for the first time in 2018. Ms Lourigan and Ms Lynas are the seventh and eighth Queensland Corrective Service officers to receive the honour.

Ms Lourigan is recognised for her extensive experience over her 14-year career in QCS for her work in psychological and intervention services for high risk and dangerous male prisoners and her dedication to their rehabilitation.

Ms Lynas is recognised for her dedication to community safety during her 20-year career in QCS and her tireless work to enhance management and safe reintegration of dangerous sex offenders into the community. She has since left the QCS to further her career in other areas.

Commissioner Peter Martin APM said the awards highlighted and celebrated the diversity of the important work that QCS officers do in the community.

"It is very appropriate that the hard work of Ms Lourigan and Ms Lynas is formally recognised in this way, and it highlights the amazing work our officers do every day to keep Queensland safe," Commissioner Martin said.

"As a top-tier public safety agency, it is important for us to appropriately recognise our people for the vital role they play in the community.

"Excellence is one of the guiding principles of Corrections 2030, and it is vital that we identify and celebrate the excellent work of our greatest assets, our people," Commissioner Martin said

Established in 2017, the ACM is awarded every year on Australia Day and the Queen's Birthday (June) for distinguished service by correctional officers across Australia.

The Australian Corrections Medal features the Federation Star and bears the scales of justice and is surrounded by a laurel of Australian wattle.

Ms Simone Lourigan ACM

Ms Lourigan commenced service with Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) in 2005 as a Custodial Correctional Officer. Throughout her 14 year career with QCS she has worked in a number of roles including as a Custodial Correctional Officer, Administration Officer, Community Corrections Officer, Correctional Counsellor, Psychologist, Senior Psychologist, Manager and Director – Community Corrections Operations, and currently is the Manager, Offender Development at Woodford Correctional Centre, a position she has held since 2015.

As the Correctional Manager, Maximum Security, Woodford Correctional Centre, and in her substantive role as Manager, Offender Development, she is in daily contact with high and maximum security male prisoners undertaking primarily operational duties in the direct control and management of high risk, dangerous male prisoners.

She is recognised for her extensive experience in psychological and intervention services to draw on evidence-based approaches and strategies to develop and implement individualised treatment and management plans for high risk or 'at risk' prisoners; managing high levels of complexity; ensuring a holistically supportive environment; and pioneering and progressing better and innovative ways to ensure the humane containment of prisoners.

Woodford Correctional Centre is the largest prison in Queensland, and houses some of the State's highest risk prisoners in its Maximum Security Unit. The facility also manages a significant number of prisoners with mental health and self-harm concerns that require significant intervention and treatment to ensure their safety and wellbeing. She takes a leading role in the critical care approach to ensure tailored intervention and case management, sound clinical decision making processes, coordination of service delivery, and procedural compliance, to manage these offenders.

Ms Lourigan has distinguished herself for her service to QCS, her commitment to community safety, and to the rehabilitation of high risk prisoners.

Ms Jenny Lynas ACM

Ms Lynas commenced service with Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) in 2000 as a Correctional Counsellor at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre. Throughout her distinguished 20 year career she has displayed the highest levels of commitment and dedication to protecting the community of Queensland. Her service at QCS has seen her fill a range of positions including as a Psychologist; Senior Psychologist; Project Officer; Senior Advisor, Sex Offenders and Dangerous Offenders Coordinator; Director, High Risk Offender Management Unit (HROMU); Regional Manager, Community Corrections; and Executive Director, Specialist Operations.

Since 2007 she has been the Director of the HROMU, and in this role she has daily contact with, and is responsible for, high risk sex offenders who are subject to indeterminate imprisonment for control, care and treatment, or through community based supervision. As part of her role at HROMU she is responsible, through her teams, for the direct control and management of 191 dangerous sex offenders across Queensland, with in excess of 125 under electronic monitoring and community supervision.

For the past 15 years she has been at the forefront of community safety as a preeminent authority in the management of high risk, dangerous sex offenders. She has distinguished herself in Queensland since the commencement of the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 (DPSOA) and nationally, through her work as the co-chair of the National Working Party for the Treatment and Management of Sexual Offenders. She is directly responsible for shaping the approach in Queensland for the management of high risk, dangerous sex offenders and their safe reintegration into the community under care, control and treatment in accordance with the DPSOA.

Ms Lynas works across boundaries, across government, the courts and judiciary, and with clinicians in the community to enhance the management of dangerous sex offenders for a safer community in Queensland.