Resources To Support New Professionals In The Criminal Justice System

August saw the anniversary of the birth of Christiane Susanne Augustine (Augusta) Zadow (1846-1896). Augusta Zadow was a trade unionist and factory inspector who arrived in Adelaide in 1877 to live in Goodwood. She assisted the increasing number of female workers in the newly mechanised clothing trades by investigating complaints about wages, work safety and sanitary conditions. She was a major force in establishing the Working Women’s Trades Union. After she died in 1896, over 1000 threepenny subscriptions were collected for her tombstone at West Terrace cemetery, honouring her ‘Self-denying Efforts on Behalf of the Struggling and Oppressed’.

SafeWork SA established a small grants scheme to support projects that align with Augusta Zadow’s values. Last year, the Magnolia Project won a Zadow grant. Our project explored the importance of trauma-informed practice for young women and new workers in criminal justice settings. We completed this project in mid-2024. In August this year, we held a small dinner to launch our reports to align with Augusta Zadow’s birthday.

We wrote two reports, which can be accessed here.

Our literature review summarises published research to help understand what influences the recruitment and retention of new CJS professionals. We applied a trauma-informed perspective to consider early-career workers’ expectations and the challenges they expect to encounter. Then, we explored what this might mean in terms of personal stress, trauma, burnout, and self-care. 

Our resource for professionals, educators, and employers was developed based on discussions with professionals in the CJS. We wanted to create a document from these discussions and our literature review to raise awareness of some of the issues and challenges new professionals may encounter. In addition, we wanted to encourage people to reflect on how best to navigate the CJS and—importantly, from our perspective at the Magnolia project—identify ways to ensure new professionals flourish in the criminal justice system and positively contribute to those with whom they work.

These resources are supported by a series of short videos featuring experienced and early-career workers.

We want to thank all those who have supported this project, including the women who participated in our roundtable forum and kindly agreed to share their experiences with others. Please do have a look!