Public Safety and Housing Minister David Burch has praised the work of a halfway house for ex-inmates ? with 76 percent staying out of trouble.

Senator Burch said the Transitional Living Centre (TLC) had done an excellent job with the 94 former prisoners in its programme and should be expanded.

He said 33 percent had been out in the community for a year or more without ending up in prison, while 26 percent had gone more than two years trouble-free while 17 percent had gone three years and beyond without reoffending.

?It is important to note that offenders who complete the TLC programme are twice as successful as those who do not. Simply put this Alternatives to Incarceration programme works.?

He said the TLC which offers structure, support and guidance worked particularly well with younger offenders with those in the 21-30 age group having the lowest rate of recividism.

TLC residents are helped to manage their finances.

?So far in this fiscal year $51,000 of income earned by residents of the TLC has been applied to such positive purposes as child support, child maintenance arrears, college tuition and debt reduction.

?A further $18,000 has been reinvested into the programme to offset operational costs of the TLC. I have asked my technical officers to explore the recommendations of the report with a view to establishing how we can continue to get the best out of the programme and indeed expand it further.?