Person released from prison re-establishes income, identity, health care and housing

Every system this person needs runs on documents, appointments and deadlines. The one thing custody reliably destroys is documents, appointments and deadlines. Seven days to claim a crisis payment, and photo ID must be produced in person.

justiceA person leaving custody after a sentence of more than fourteen days, without stable housing to return to draft compare across jurisdictions

135 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

10 discrete steps
across 5 bodies

22% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

111 days saved by concurrency
vs. 246 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

third party		105d	Waiting on an external body outside the regulator's control.
queue		30d	Waiting behind unrelated work in a backlog.

30 of 135 elapsed days are spent waiting for a person or a meeting rather than for a judgement to be formed. Removing that time changes no assessment standard and lowers no bar -- it is the cost of scheduling alone.

The process, step by step

Applies when: A person is released from custody and must re-enter the income support, health and housing systems.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	Release date confirmed decision The date the person will be at the gate, and how much notice anyone has of it.	Corrective services	assessment	—	0 estimate	—
2	Lodge a pre-release claim application only if triggered A social security claim may be lodged before release where the date is known and within 21 days. Triggered when: The release date is known, is no more than 21 days away, a pre-release appointment can be arranged, and the person's identity can be authenticated. after Release date confirmed 114d slack	Services Australia	applicant	—	21 published	—
3	Release registration after Release date confirmed 135d slack	Corrective services	assessment	—	0 estimate	—
4	Establish identity certification An acceptable photo identity document, produced in person at a service centre. after Release 90d slack	Services Australia	third party	—	45 published	—
5	Claim the crisis payment application only if triggered One week's payment for a person released after at least 14 days in custody. Triggered when: There was no pre-release interview. The claim must be made within 7 days of release. after Release 128d slack	Services Australia	statutory	7	7 published	Social Security Act 1991 (Cth)
6	Income support claim granted decision after Establish identity 60d slack	Services Australia	queue	—	30 estimate	—
7	Mutual obligation requirements commence registration Job plan, points target and appointments begin. after Income support claim granted 39d slack	Employment services provider	scheduling	—	21 estimate	—
8	Re-establish Medicare and medication supply registration Medicare card reactivated, a prescriber found, and PBS scripts obtained. after Establish identity 30d slack	Department of Health, Disability and Ageing	third party	—	60 estimate	—
9	Apply for housing assistance application Application to the housing register, and priority assessment where there is urgent need. after Establish identity 30d slack	Homes NSW	assessment	—	60 estimate	—
10	Stable income, identity, health care and housing registration The point at which the person is in the systems they need. after Income support claim granted, Re-establish Medicare and medication supply, Apply for housing assistance	—	queue	—	30 estimate	—

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Proposed changes

Sort out identity before release, not in the seven days after it resequence ~45d
A person leaving custody has seven days to claim a crisis payment and must produce photo ID in person to do it. Custody is the circumstance most likely to have destroyed their documents. The state held them for months and had every one of those months to fix it.
Exempt prison health services from the Medicare exclusion remove ~60d
Section 19(2) of the Health Insurance Act keeps people in custody outside Medicare and the PBS. It was written to prevent double-dipping between governments. Its effect on prisons is that continuity of care breaks at both ends, for the population that uses health care most.

Sources

Services Australia, Prison Pre-release Claim form SU674: a claim may be lodged before release where the release date is known and no more than 21 days away, the person agrees to a pre-release appointment, and authentication can be established
Services Australia, Crisis Payment for release from prison or psychiatric confinement: requires at least 14 days in custody; where there was no pre-release interview, the claim must be made within 7 days of release
Services Australia: an acceptable photo identity document must be provided in person at a service centre before a claim can be submitted
Health Insurance Act 1973 (Cth), s 19(2)

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/nsw-prison-release.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.