As the parent of a young man serving a prison sentence in NSW, the news that criminal re-offending rates have reached a new high comes as no surprise to me. Contrary to what Corrective Services NSW would have you believe, there are no rehabilitation programs for the majority of prison inmates.

During his time on remand at Parklea and Long Bay prisons and subsequently as a sentenced prisoner at Silverwater prison, my son has had nothing that would count as rehabilitation: no programs, no education, no training.

On our regular prison visits we see with dismay how our young son is unconsciously becoming socialised with career criminals. Credit:AAP

The reality is that for most of his time – up to 20 hours a day – he has been locked in his cell with other inmates listening to them discuss how to break into cars or steal credit cards. On our first visit to him on remand in Long Bay he told us: "There’s nothing to do in prison except drugs, play cards or work out in the yard."

A bookworm, in his first few weeks he struggled to find one book to read, rationing himself to one chapter a day. He tried to resume his business studies pre-uni course but with no internet access and with prisons banning any educational materials being sent in from outside, that has fallen by the wayside.