THE Orange Show next year will have a unique exhibitor in the poultry section called the Jailbirds after members of Orange's Poultry Club handed over several chickens and other birds to be cared for by prisoners at Oberon Correctional Centre.
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Several prison officials travelled to Orange on Saturday for the handover which marks the start of a project where prisoners will care for and groom the birds in preparation for their first showing.
“We have already invited the group to exhibit at Orange,” Orange Show Society president Peter Naylor said.
The project was initiated by Orange Poultry Club member Gary Norman who is a correctional officer at Oberon.
Mr Norman has been working closely with inmates to build a poultry enclosure at the correctional facility. Now it is complete the only thing missing is the poultry, which was handed over at Orange Showground on Saturday morning.
Oberon Correctional Centre acting general manager Richard Ayoub and deputy governor Mark Kennedy travelled to Orange on Saturday for the handover.
“Caring for the poultry will give the inmates the responsibility of looking after and caring for them, and in the past the type of programs where inmates have to care for dogs have proved to be extremely successfully, Mr Kennedy said.
“Inmates have really embraced the program at Kirkconnel [correctional facility] where they care for puppies and there is also a program at Windsor where they rehabilitate greyhounds who have been rescued due to ill-treatment,” he said.
“This is an important initiative for the inmates who will be able to experience firsthand the responsibility of caring for the birds,” he said.
“This is the first program of its kind at the centre and our club was very willing to become involved,” Orange Poultry Club president Lionel Jurd said.
