tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/imprisonment-17392/articlesImprisonment – The Conversation2024-02-05T16:27:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220022024-02-05T16:27:31Z2024-02-05T16:27:31ZHow Iceland takes better care of its foreign offenders than the rest of Europe<p>It is hard being a prisoner. It is even harder if you’re a foreign national. You may not speak the local language. You probably won’t have family nearby to visit you. The establishment might not make it easy for you to observe your religion. </p>
<p>Criminologist <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1748895815603775">Jason Warr</a> has shown how foreign national prisoners not only suffer from the isolation and deprivation of liberty that all prisoners experience, they are also deprived of certitude. The way immigration systems intersect with criminal justice systems means that these prisoners often have neither certainty over when they’ll be released nor confidence in how that will be decided.</p>
<p>Foreign offenders make up a significant proportion of prison populations across western Europe. For a <a href="https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/publications/out-in-the-cold-the-experiences-of-foreign-national-prisoners-in-">recent study</a>, I asked the Icelandic prison authorities if I could spend a week living in each of the country’s two open prisons, where 42% of prisoners at the time were foreign nationals. I wanted to understand these institutions from the inside, to see what <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-deliberately-sent-myself-to-prison-in-iceland-they-didnt-even-lock-the-cell-doors-there-105257">Iceland</a> is doing differently.</p>
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<img alt="A low building in a remote landscape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573060/original/file-20240202-27-hzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573060/original/file-20240202-27-hzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573060/original/file-20240202-27-hzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573060/original/file-20240202-27-hzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573060/original/file-20240202-27-hzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573060/original/file-20240202-27-hzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573060/original/file-20240202-27-hzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Kvíabryggja open prison in western Iceland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fangelsi%C3%B0-Kv%C3%ADabryggju.jpg">Palli3000|Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>Humane settings</h2>
<p>A small European country tucked away in the north Atlantic, Iceland has <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hojo.12244">only four prisons</a>. This is, of course a result of the country’s tiny population. But in this small world of prisons, it seems that arrangements are possible that we do not often see elsewhere.</p>
<p>There are two closed – <a href="https://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/holmsheidi-prison-in-reykjavik-iceland-by-arkis">Hólmsheiði</a>, on the outskirts of Reykjavik and the largest, Litla-Hraun, just outside Eyrarbakki, on the south coast – and two <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/26326663231160343">open prisons</a>.</p>
<p>The latter are comparatively tiny, catering only for about 20 prisoners. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/business/iceland-bitcoin-heist.html">Sogn</a> is found on the southern plains, where horse riding is popular. Kvíabryggja, in the remote west of the country, sits right next to Kirkjufell, an iconic mountain that featured in Game of Thrones. These are the kind of settings where you would expect a lush hotel, not a prison.</p>
<p>Inside, both provide tranquillity and good food, cooked by prisoners. Officer-prisoner relationships are generally good. Importantly, there is generous internet access (with obvious restrictions). In other words, there are worse places to serve time.</p>
<p>I requested a room (the word cell simply does not apply to the accommodation that much resembles university housing in the UK) in which I would live the daily life of a prisoner. I would interview anyone who was willing to speak with me. The prison authorities agreed, and the governors of each establishment did too. They were keen to help me understand their ethos.</p>
<p>Almost half of the open-prison population in Iceland is comprised of foreign nationals. The language during games and watching TV was often English rather than Icelandic. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dire-state-of-british-prisons-and-what-they-could-learn-from-europe-to-get-better-212907">In the UK</a>, by contrast, the overall figure of foreign nationals is <a href="https://wp.unil.ch/space/files/2024/01/240111_SPACE-I_2022_FinalReport.pdf">9.7%</a>. In Ireland, it is 13.8%. </p>
<p>Every foreign prisoner obviously has a unique set of circumstances. However, here I saw patterns in how people were adapting to being imprisoned in a foreign land. Some seem to accept their fate with a certain resignation. </p>
<p>Bruno from southern Europe had been convicted of smuggling cannabis. He used the internet to talk to family. Youtube helped him stay connected to his professional field, as a technician. Alexis, from South America, used Skype to stay in touch with relatives. </p>
<p>These prisoners adjusted to the open prison conditions pretty well. They also realise that in their home countries, life in prison would be considerably harder. </p>
<h2>Being imprisoned on a foreign land</h2>
<p>For others the experience was different. The prison holds both men and women, and Adele, from western Europe, was outraged at the length of her sentence, which was more than 10 years, despite her cooperation with the police. She felt betrayed and isolated, distrustful of the criminal justice system. </p>
<p>So too Werner, also from western Europe, who felt let down by the system, by his defence lawyer and by the country as a whole. Both Adele and Werner might concede that the open-prison conditions are benign. </p>
<p>However, they remain bewildered by the fact that they are there in the first place as they simply did not expect to be sentenced to years of imprisonment for drug-related crimes. </p>
<p>Some prisoners I spoke with have taken advantage of these benign conditions to carve out a senior role for themselves. Arjan, from western Europe, served as a chef. This is a highly regarded position in the prison and has the added bonus of a weekly trip to the nearby town to go grocery shopping. </p>
<p>Philip too, was a chef and proud of that. The food is often locally sourced, always cooked on site and, crucially, there’s enough to eat. </p>
<p>This stands in <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-96125-1_7">stark contrast</a> with many prisons across Europe, where the food – grey, tasteless and usually insufficient – is brought in. </p>
<p>Prisoners like Philip argue that they are mentors for younger prisoners. They cook good food and play an important part in running the prison. They have sought to elevate their status, seeking to place themselves above the Icelandic prisoners, who are often younger, and are closer to the officers, who they find friendly, yet ineffectual although this is not a view shared by all prisoners. For prisoners like Philip, the prison conditions provide an opportunity for status elevation.</p>
<p>While the foreign prisoners I met in Iceland cope to different degrees, they are not suffering the same multiple disadvantages of isolation and deprivation as their counterparts in other western countries.</p>
<p>Few get in-person visits, but they are able to stay in touch with loved ones through internet access. They are able to work or learn. This means they earn <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756061623000526">substantially more money</a> than prisoners in other countries. They don’t fear bullying or brutality, and they are not segregated from the mainstream.</p>
<p>The prison experience I witnessed is less traumatic and less violating to people’s sense of self. While the pains of imprisonment that Warr <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1748895815603775">discusses</a> are certainly still felt, people’s status as foreign nationals <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203385562-8/incarceration-foreigners-european-prisons-thomas-ugelvik">does not exacerbate those pains</a>.</p>
<p>In the interest of fairness and equity, that is an important achievement of Iceland’s open prisons. Other countries, including the UK, would be wise to take note.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis Pakes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In Iceland’s few open prisons, prisoners benefit from benign conditions, rural settings and internet access. This makes being imprisoned as a foreigner much easier than in other western Europen countries.Francis Pakes, Professor of Criminology, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2155622023-11-07T15:08:32Z2023-11-07T15:08:32ZLonger sentences? Overcrowded UK prisons are already failing society<p>The UK government plans to impose tougher sentences on those convicted of serious crimes, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67337441">it announced</a> via this year’s king’s speech at the state opening of parliament. Political pundits reacting to the speech <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001s7n5/the-state-opening-of-parliament-2023">on the BBC</a> immediately questioned the rationale behind potentially putting more people in prison, when UK prisons are struggling to accommodate those already under their purview.</p>
<p>The England and Wales prison watchdog <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/25/one-in-10-prisons-in-england-and-wales-should-be-shut-down-watchdog-says">has said</a> that one in ten prisons in those two countries should be shut down because of overcrowding and inhumane regimes. Similar concerns <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66121355">have been voiced</a> over prisons in Scotland and in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-67228069">Northern Ireland</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dire-state-of-british-prisons-and-what-they-could-learn-from-europe-to-get-better-212907">deteriorating state of the UK’s prisons</a> was emphasised most recently by news reports that, in August 2023, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66121355">an Irish judge</a> blocked a man’s extradition to Scotland, due to the long hours prisoners in the Scottish estate spend in cells (up to 22 hours a day). The judge also raised concerns about this man’s complex mental health needs, <a href="https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/research-and-analysis/2022/09/understanding-mental-health-needs-scotlands-prison-population/documents/understanding-mental-health-needs-scotlands-prison-population/understanding-mental-health-needs-scotlands-prison-population/govscot%3Adocument/understanding-mental-health-needs-scotlands-prison-population.pdf">highlighting recent research</a> which identified poor recognition of neuro-developmental disorders across the UK prison estate, despite their relatively high prevalence.</p>
<p>And in September 2023 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/05/germany-refuses-extradite-albanian-man-uk-jail-conditions">a German court</a> in Karlsruhe followed suit, refusing to extradite a man to the UK. Here too, the court report cited concerns over prison conditions in a decision described by a member of the UK’s Law Society as a “severe rebuke” and “an embarrassment for the UK”. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.sccjr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Getting-it-right-for-families-Briefing-Paper.pdf">our research</a> and the wider body of scholarship <a href="https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/PSJ%20263%2C%20Families%20inside.pdf">makes clear</a>, what happens on the inside affects both those who are incarcerated and the prison staff. And those struggles, in turn, affect people on the outside – often profoundly. </p>
<h2>The UK’s high rates of imprisonment</h2>
<p>Overcrowding is not a new problem, but is now being seen and felt – as HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland Wendy Sinclair-Gieben put it in her annual report for 2022-2023 – at an <a href="https://www.prisonsinspectoratescotland.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publication_files/HM%20Chief%20Inspectors%20of%20Prisons%20Scotland%20-%20Annual%20Report%20-%202022-2023.pdf">“exacerbated scale”</a>.</p>
<p>British <a href="https://theconversation.com/prison-numbers-set-to-rise-24-in-england-and-wales-it-will-make-society-less-safe-not-more-172566">rates of imprisonment</a> are among the highest in western Europe. In Scotland, the prison population rate stands at <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/united-kingdom-scotland">144 per 100,000</a> of the national population. In England and Wales, the figure is a little higher, at <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/united-kingdom-england-wales">146 per 100,000</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://wp.unil.ch/space/files/2023/06/230626_Key-Findings-SPACE-I_Prisons-and-Prisoners-in-Europe-2022.pdf">European average</a>, by contrast, is 118 per 100,000 population (although the median is lower, at 104 per 100,000). The UK’s close European neighbours including the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany, as well as all the Nordic nations, have <a href="https://wp.unil.ch/space/files/2023/06/230626_Key-Findings-SPACE-I_Prisons-and-Prisoners-in-Europe-2022.pdf">rates of less than 90 per 100,000</a>. </p>
<p>Imprisonment rates have been <a href="https://prisonreformtrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/prison_the_facts_2023.pdf">climbing</a> in England and Wales over the last 30 years, as well as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hojo.12516?af=R">in Scotland</a> with rates described as “stubbornly high” by criminologists. Yet, overall rates of crime have been <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2023">consistently falling</a> in England and Wales and <a href="https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2023/06/recorded-crime-scotland-2022-23/documents/recorded-crime-scotland-2022-23/recorded-crime-scotland-2022-23/govscot%3Adocument/recorded-crime-scotland-2022-23.pdf">Scotland alike</a>. </p>
<p>In Northern Ireland, historically, rates of imprisonment have been closer to those in the Republic of Ireland. While the current rate (99 per 100,000) is lower than the other UK jurisdictions, <a href="https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/justice/Northern-Ireland-Prison-Population-2022-23.pdf">it is rising</a>.</p>
<h2>How incarceration impacts prisoners, families and society</h2>
<p>Research has long shown that overcrowded prisons <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJPH-04-2018-0014/full/pdf?title=overcrowding-and-its-impact-on-prison-conditions-and-health">serve no one</a>. For those incarcerated, they are harder environments to live in. They reduce opportunities to engage in programmes. They increase people’s risk of coming to physical harm, with rising tensions and inadequate staffing to de-escalate and respond. </p>
<p>For prison staff, overcrowding intensifies an inherently complex and demanding job. Officers <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hojo.12394">expend considerable emotional labour</a> in carrying out their roles. When they are put in charge of more people than a facility is designed to accommodate, the extra burden <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/28/prisons-struggle-to-keep-staff-as-officers-leave-for-border-force-and-police">fuels</a> a cycle of burnout, attrition and understaffing. </p>
<p>Our research <a href="https://www.sccjr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Getting-it-right-for-families-Briefing-Paper.pdf">shows</a> that the wider impact of bad prison conditions is felt by the families of loved ones in custody – and society at large. Data is not routinely captured on the number of family members affected by imprisonment, although the UK charity, Families Outside, estimates that around <a href="https://www.familiesoutside.org.uk/27000-children-in-scotland-are-given-new-rights/">27,000 children in Scotland</a> alone are affected by the imprisonment of a parent each year. </p>
<p>Part of the impact on families is literally <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0961463X16633235">hanging around and waiting</a>, in all kinds of ways – waiting for the <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8372/CBP-8372.pdf">trial</a>, waiting for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02645505211025592#bibr43-02645505211025592">the bus</a> to go to the prison and waiting <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0264550516663644">in corridors</a> before the visit.</p>
<p>Further, family members <a href="https://www.sccjr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Getting-it-right-for-families-Briefing-Paper.pdf">experience</a> societal stigma and judgment, along with financial stresses. Some suffer from the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13668803.2011.580125?needAccess=true">loss of breadwinner earnings</a>. The family member outside may need to do less paid work, to do more <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/poverty-and-disadvantage-among-prisoners-families">(unpaid) childcare</a>, which the (now) prisoner previously did. </p>
<p>In addition, the emotional toll on families is pronounced. <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JCP-03-2017-0011/full/html">Keeping in touch</a> is very important. This in turn also adds pressure to household budgets however, for example with <a href="https://www.familiesoutside.org.uk/content/uploads/2022/11/Paying-the-Price-October-22022.pdf">travel costs</a> associated with prison visits.</p>
<p>Sociologists have long warned about the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2632666320936432">“pains of imprisonment”</a>, the unique deprivations – of liberty, security, autonomy – that characterise a prison sentence. Family members frequently, and intensely, worry about the impact on incarcerated loved ones. As one family member in a study one of us (Rebecca Foster) undertook in 2019 <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-12744-2_13">put it</a>: “If it’s hard visiting, it’s a lot worse being in there. You need to remember that.”</p>
<p>Building more prisons, will not, <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1038765/prisons-strategy-white-paper.pdf">as has been suggested</a>, result in less overcrowding, nor in a reduction in its associated ills. Rather, it will just see <a href="https://howardleague.org/blog/it-is-time-to-stop-building-prisons/">more people</a> being sent to fill them. </p>
<p>Truly addressing overcrowding has to start with <a href="https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/10-pt-plan-overcrowding.pdf">reducing the number of people</a> sent to prison in the first place. Community-based punishments should prevail, with prison reserved for only the most <a href="https://www.iprt.ie/site/assets/files/6132/scotlands_choice.pdf">serious offenders</a>. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/fixing-the-prison-crisis-in-birmingham-and-beyond-its-about-more-than-process-and-punishment-102134">harms of imprisonment</a> have always had a ripple effect. Prisons at crisis point cause even more, far-reaching damage.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215562/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Foster has previously received funding from the Dawes Trust, the Scottish Government, and the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirstin Anderson previously received funding from the Scottish Government, Royal Society of Edinburgh, the British Academy and the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. </span></em></p>The UK imprisons more people than most of its western European neighbours and the conditions in its prisons are getting worse.Rebecca Foster, Lecturer in Criminology, Edinburgh Napier UniversityKirstin Anderson, Lecturer in Criminology, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145672023-11-02T19:13:03Z2023-11-02T19:13:03ZI was a ward of the state. The horrors of the Parramatta Girls’ Home were legendary<p><em>Readers are advised this article discusses sexual abuse.</em></p>
<p>In the Sydney suburb of North Parramatta sits a cluster of very old buildings known as the “<a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/heritage/places/national/parramatta-female-factory-and-institutions-precinct">Parramatta Female Factory Precinct</a>”.</p>
<p>Built in 1821 to house and provide productive employment for the New South Wales colony’s growing population of female convicts, it was also the site of countless <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/case_study_7_-_findings_report_-_parramatta_training_school_for_girls.pdf">horrors</a> – many of which occurred much more recently than you might think. </p>
<p>The Australian government recently announced it will nominate the Parramatta Female Factory in Sydney for <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/faq/19">World Heritage listing</a>. It is a worthy nomination; the site is deeply significant for the many wards of the state who survived institutionalisation here or in other parts of Australia.</p>
<p>This precinct is by no means merely a relic of the convict era. Only 15 years ago, part of the site was a women’s prison. And from 1887 to 1974, it housed the notorious <a href="https://www.parragirls.org.au/parramatta-girls-home">Parramatta Girls’ Home</a>.</p>
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<h2>The Parramatta Girls’ Home</h2>
<p>The Girls’ Home was also known as Parramatta Girls’ Industrial School, Girls’ Training School, and Girls’ Training Home. Each name was very much a euphemism. Whatever you call it, it was a high-security institution. That is, a jail.</p>
<p>It was a place where adolescent girls who had been removed from abusive or unfit parents, found homeless, orphaned, or mandated by the courts as wards of the state could be indefinitely detained. </p>
<p>It was among the most infamous examples of what criminologists today call “penal welfare” – the practice of locking up children and adolescents who have committed no offence other than being poor, homeless, or simply unloved.</p>
<p>It was official policy to treat welfare inmates — already highly vulnerable and having committed no offence at all — like <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/12063312211066542">hardened criminals</a>.</p>
<p>They suffered a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT6YzaHlC5E">cruel and humiliating regime</a> of physical, psychological and sexual violence. </p>
<p>The most trivial infraction of the rules — or no infraction at all — attracted <a href="https://www.parragirls.org.au/parramatta-girls-home">punishments</a> such as forced silence, scrubbing floors (with a toothbrush), beatings, and solitary confinement in dark underground cells.</p>
<p>And aside from the trauma of being locked in a pitch-black dungeon, girls in solitary were routinely <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/case_study_7_-_findings_report_-_parramatta_training_school_for_girls.pdf">raped</a> by male staff members.</p>
<p>So horrific was its record of abuses that the <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/">Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse</a> treated it as a special <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/case-studies/case-study-07-parramatta-training-school-girls">case study</a>.</p>
<p>The Commission heard testimony from former inmates who named former staff members as serial sex offenders. Many had since died, but others have been charged and received <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/crime/noel-greenaway-to-die-behind-bars-after-appeal-dismissed/news-story/45d35c7af78fd0d2c4ee6bf5feeeac06">heavy</a> prison sentences.</p>
<p>And it should be kept in mind that the Royal Commission’s terms of reference focused narrowly on sexual abuse. No prosecutions ensued for the myriad incidents of appalling, but non-sexual, emotional and physical maltreatment.</p>
<p>The stakeholders who so passionately advocated for the preservation and commemoration of the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct were survivors of the Girls’ Home. </p>
<p>In 2006 they formed a lobby group called “<a href="https://www.parragirls.org.au/">Parragirls</a>”, and began campaigning for official acknowledgement of their experiences.</p>
<p>They called for the entire site — not just the convict-era building — to be recognised as historically significant and worthy of preservation.</p>
<h2>It wasn’t the only institution</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/12063312211066542">Parragirls</a> number a few hundred. They form a small subsection of the roughly half a million survivors of out-of-home “care” in the latter half of the 20th century, whom a 2003 Senate inquiry dubbed the “<a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate/community_affairs/completed_inquiries/2004-07/inst_care/report/index">Forgotten Australians</a>”. </p>
<p>I was a ward of the state as a teenager and spent time in various institutions as a child. As a Victorian, I was never in danger of being locked away in Parramatta, but its horrors were legendary among state wards everywhere. </p>
<p>We had <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/case-studies/case-study-30-youth-detention-centres-victoria">our own institutions</a>, many as brutal as Parramatta, to contend with and try to avoid.</p>
<p>Australia has not come to terms with what happened to wards of the state in the 20th century. </p>
<p>Many are still alive, but many lives have been ruined. </p>
<p>Institutions like Parramatta Girls and others investigated by various inquiries and by the Royal Commission remain relatively unknown to the general public. </p>
<p>For Forgotten Australians whose lives were not touched directly by Parramatta, the site nevertheless stands as an emblem of all the institutions that served Australia’s horrific “penal welfare” system. </p>
<p>Many of us endorse the campaign to have the entire site, not just the convict-era Female Factory, preserved and nominated for World Heritage recognition.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"930241874299727872"}"></div></p>
<h2>It has taken too long to recognise this history</h2>
<p>World Heritage Listing defines the site as being “of outstanding universal value to humanity” and ensures it will be preserved.</p>
<p>If the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct makes it onto the World Heritage List, it will be only the second female convict factory site in Australia to do so, after the <a href="https://femalefactory.org.au/history/%22%22">Cascades Female Factory</a> in Tasmania.</p>
<p>Parramatta’s nomination, however, raises questions. </p>
<p>Older and larger than Cascades, it was the prototype of all female factories around Australia, and significantly more of it survives today than any other site. Yet it took years of campaigning to draw the government’s attention to it. </p>
<p>Sydney’s <a href="https://mhnsw.au/visit-us/hyde-park-barracks/">Hyde Park Barracks</a>, a major convict prison for men, has been a tourist attraction for decades and has had World Heritage listing since 2010.</p>
<p>To overlook an even larger and equally significant site devoted to women of the same historical era is a rather glaring omission.</p>
<p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. The National Sexual Assault, Family and Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Z. Wilson receives funding from the Australian Research Council Discovery Projects: DP210101275. "Activism & Advocacy: From Deficit Models To Survivor Narratives"</span></em></p>Built in 1821 to house and provide productive employment for the New South Wales colony’s growing population of female convicts, the Parramatta Female Factory was also the site of countless horrors.Jacqueline Z. Wilson, Adjunct Associate Professor in History, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2070172023-06-06T00:19:46Z2023-06-06T00:19:46ZKathleen Folbigg is free. But people pardoned and exonerated of crimes face unique challenges when released from prison<p>In 2003, Kathleen Folbigg was convicted of killing her four children. She has now been released from prison, 20 years later, after being <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-05/kathleen-folbigg-attorney-general-provides-update/102440136">pardoned by the Attorney General of New South Wales</a>. </p>
<p>While Folbigg received an unconditional pardon, her conviction is <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/kathleen-folbigg-pardoned-and-to-be-freed-from-prison-without-delay-20230605-p5ddy9.html">not quashed</a> and she has not yet been formally exonerated. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1665829595772252161"}"></div></p>
<p>Few Australians <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/INFORMIT.801706351305383">have been exonerated or pardoned</a>, so we know more from cases in the United States. Being released from prison comes with unique and significant psychological and practical challenges. Here’s what the research tells us. </p>
<h2>Practical barriers experienced by exonerees</h2>
<p>Typically, when someone is released from prison, they can access programs to assist with their reintegration into society. They may be eligible for halfway houses and have <a href="https://justice.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/296039/probation-and-parole-officer-recruitment-information-pack.pdf">parole officers</a> to help them with practical tasks, such as finding employment and seeking mental health treatment. </p>
<p>While exonerees have spent time in prison, they are no longer considered a (former) prisoner and may not <a href="https://wainnocenceproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/HJExonereeResourceFINAL.pdf">have access</a> to these same kinds of services. </p>
<p>Some states in the US now have specialised programs to assist exonerees after release. But the limited number of exoneration cases in Australia mean such services don’t exist here. </p>
<p>Even with assistance, exonerees often still struggle to organise their life after prison. For one, they may find it difficult to access compensation. US states have different compensation statutes that vary in terms of the <a href="https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Compensation%20Statutes%20A%20National%20Overview.pdf">amount exonerees can seek</a>. </p>
<p>In Australia, exonerees have to engage in further legal proceedings to receive compensation. So far, fewer than one-third of exonerees <a href="https://rightnow.org.au/opinion/when-justice-fails-wrongful-convictions-in-australia/">have received compensation</a>.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kathleen-folbigg-pardon-shows-australia-needs-a-dedicated-body-to-investigate-wrongful-convictions-205645">Kathleen Folbigg pardon shows Australia needs a dedicated body to investigate wrongful convictions</a>
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<p>Exonerees may struggle to reintegrate into society due to the stigma. Research shows community members hold negative attitudes towards exonerees, including <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/lcrp.12018">not wanting social contact with them</a>. This can make it difficult for exonerees to form meaningful social connections. </p>
<p>This stigma may result in exonerees being discriminated against, denying them access to housing, employment and other crucial services. </p>
<p>Studies overseas have shown exonerees are less likely to receive a response back about rental listings than people who haven’t been to prison. And any responses they do receive are less friendly. In these studies, exonerees are treated similarly to ex-prisoners, despite having <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Flaw0000323">been proven innocent</a>. </p>
<p>But limited Australian research indicates exonerees here tend to be perceived more like people who are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1068316X.2023.2169444">found innocent</a> than those found <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13218719.2018.1491015">guilty</a>. More research is needed to understand the unique challenges exonerees face here. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Prison wire fence" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530202/original/file-20230605-7788-xqswu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530202/original/file-20230605-7788-xqswu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530202/original/file-20230605-7788-xqswu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530202/original/file-20230605-7788-xqswu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530202/original/file-20230605-7788-xqswu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530202/original/file-20230605-7788-xqswu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530202/original/file-20230605-7788-xqswu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Exonerees can struggle to find housing and maintain friendships after their release.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/barbed-razor-wire-on-fence-security-252641311">Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Psychological issues</h2>
<p>Exonerees have levels of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10926771.2022.2051656">psychological distress</a>
comparable to other vulnerable groups such as war veterans, refugees and survivors of torture. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, they are at risk of developing clinical anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. They may also encounter <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/655352">issues with substance use</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1068316X.2020.1733571">sleep</a> difficulties and strain on their relationships. They may struggle to form new connections or maintain connections from before their incarceration. </p>
<p>These problems are prevalent among wrongfully convicted people regardless of how long they spend in prison. In other words, even a short stint in prison while innocent may have serious and long-lasting <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0025802420949069">psychological effects</a>. </p>
<p>Exonerees may also struggle to adjust to a new way of life outside prison, given the rapid pace of social, technological and political change. </p>
<p>Not only do exonerees have to adjust to the routine of a “normal” life, they may struggle to adjust to changes they experience in their <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/655352">sense of self and their personality</a> </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kathleen-folbiggs-children-likely-died-of-natural-causes-not-murder-heres-the-evidence-my-team-found-156487">Kathleen Folbigg's children likely died of natural causes, not murder. Here's the evidence my team found</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Mothers who are wrongfully convicted</h2>
<p>Data <a href="https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/Features.Female.Exonerees.aspx">from the US</a> shows one in three wrongfully convicted women were convicted of crimes that involved harming their children or those in their care. <a href="https://innocenceproject.org/news/women-wrongful-conviction-incarceration-facts-iwd2020/">More than 70%</a> of these convictions were based on crimes which never took place, such as mothers being accused of murdering children when their death was an accident or due to natural causes. Women are <a href="https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/exonerations_us_1989_2012_full_report.pdf">three times more likely</a> than men to be wrongly convicted for crimes that didn’t occur.</p>
<p>Women who have been wrongfully convicted of murdering their children will not only endure the stigma and discrimination much like other exonerees (which could be exacerbated given the high-profile nature of their cases), but they may also be battling with the tremendous grief of losing their child. Prison can <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10926771.2022.2051656">stunt the grieving process</a>, which is a necessary psychological response to loss. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1665580120235728897"}"></div></p>
<p>Other women who were wrongfully convicted of the murder of their children in the US, such as <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5728543/Mother-wrongfully-convicted-murdering-baby-set-free-reunites-daughter.html">Michelle Murphy</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/magazine/she-was-exonerated-of-the-murder-of-her-son-her-life-is-still-shattered.html">Julie Rea</a>, have reported similar difficulties in working through their grief while also experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, difficulty finding employment, and dealing with ongoing suspicion that they are in fact guilty of the crimes they have been exonerated for. </p>
<p>While Folbigg’s release from prison might seem like a storybook ending, some of her challenges are just beginning. The research suggests showing Folbigg compassion and support during this time may go a long way in breaking down some of the barriers she is likely to face as she adjusts to life outside after 20 years in prison.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207017/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hayley Cullen previously worked on a voluntary basis for Not Guilty: The Sydney Exoneration Project, a separate organisation that reviews cases of potential wrongful conviction. She was not involved with Ms Folbigg's case.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Celine van Golde is the director of Not Guilty; the Sydney Exoneration project, a project that assesses cases of wrongful convictions. Not Guilty, while assessing similar cases in NSW, was not involved with Ms Folbigg's case.</span></em></p>One in three wrongfully convicted women were convicted of crimes that involved harming children. Once pardoned or exonerated, they experienced significant psychological and practical challenges.Hayley Cullen, Associate lecturer, University of NewcastleCeline van Golde, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychology, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1910052022-11-08T19:39:38Z2022-11-08T19:39:38ZThe criminal legal system does not deliver justice for First Nations people, says a new book<p><em>This article contains information on deaths in custody and the violence experienced by First Nations people in their encounters with the Australian carceral system. It also contains references to and the names of people who are now deceased.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Early in Russell Marks’ book, <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/black-lives-white-law">Black Lives, White Law</a>, he tells us that while he was writing it, at least 37 First Nations people died in Australia’s criminal justice system.</p>
<p>During the time I’ve been writing this review, we have listened to the coroner’s inquiry into <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-kumanjayi-walker-murder-case-echoes-a-long-history-of-police-violence-against-first-nations-people-179289">the killing of</a> Warlpiri teenager Kumanjayi Walker and seen (again) the racism and violence of police: from <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-texts-in-kumanjayi-walker-case-another-sordid-example-of-systemic-racism-in-australias-legal-system-190833">casual text messages</a> commending physical assaults, to the use of deadly force against a young man, when there were multiple other options available. </p>
<p>And then came the death of Noongar 15-year-old Cassius Turvey who was fatally attacked in Perth last month. The immediate police response was to evade claims of racism in his alleged murder. “It may be a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” speculated Western Australia’s police commissioner, saying he was “not operating on any principles of racism or motivation at this point”.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Black Lives, White Law: Locked Up and Locked Out in Australia – Russell Marks (La Trobe University Press)</em></p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493751/original/file-20221107-25-zdiljt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="book cover (yellow with text): Black Lives, White Law: Locked Up and Locked Out in Australia - by Russell Marks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493751/original/file-20221107-25-zdiljt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493751/original/file-20221107-25-zdiljt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493751/original/file-20221107-25-zdiljt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493751/original/file-20221107-25-zdiljt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493751/original/file-20221107-25-zdiljt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493751/original/file-20221107-25-zdiljt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493751/original/file-20221107-25-zdiljt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>We continue to bear witness to the visceral hatred of Aboriginal people by too many non-Aboriginal people – and the sheer indifference of too many others. The collective trauma borne by First Nations families and communities throughout Australia is palpable. </p>
<p>Russell Marks is not a First Nations person, and nor am I. Marks is, among other things, a criminal defence lawyer who has worked for Aboriginal legal services in the Northern Territory and Victoria. I have been writing on policing in Aboriginal communities since the 1980s. Our experiences and understanding of the world are not those of Aboriginal individuals, families and communities, whose lives are heavily impacted by racism and violence – both within the criminal legal system and without. But we can contribute to the struggle for justice. And Marks’ book does that. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-kumanjayi-walker-murder-case-echoes-a-long-history-of-police-violence-against-first-nations-people-179289">The Kumanjayi Walker murder case echoes a long history of police violence against First Nations people</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<h2>Nothing to do with justice</h2>
<p>Justice. If Black Lives, White Law does nothing more, it shows the hollowness of a set of institutions and practices called the “criminal justice system”. In too many cases, these collective institutions of policing, courts and prisons have little to do with justice, but a great deal to do with perpetrating and legitimating profound injustice. My preferred term is “the criminal legal system” – because this wording doesn’t pretend these institutions offer justice.</p>
<p>Many Australians might prefer to see <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-criminals-or-passive-victims-media-need-to-reframe-their-representation-of-aboriginal-deaths-in-custody-158561">Aboriginal deaths in custody</a> and the appalling rates of Aboriginal youth and adult imprisonment as the result of First Nations people’s failings. But Marks’ book aims to understand the contemporary situation by turning the gaze back onto Australia’s criminal legal system. </p>
<p>It does so through a series of chapters that explore how the criminal legal system disempowers, criminalises and incarcerates Aboriginal people. The chapters span the historical roots of colonialism and settler law, to the contemporary question of what needs to be done to change our institutions of policing, courts and prisons. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494003/original/file-20221108-22-in7txw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494003/original/file-20221108-22-in7txw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494003/original/file-20221108-22-in7txw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494003/original/file-20221108-22-in7txw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494003/original/file-20221108-22-in7txw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494003/original/file-20221108-22-in7txw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494003/original/file-20221108-22-in7txw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494003/original/file-20221108-22-in7txw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Leetona Dungay, the mother of the late David Dungay Jr, announces she will go to the United Nations to hold the federal and NSW governments to account for their failure to stop First Nations deaths in custody.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
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<p>During the period from the initial invasion of Australia through the 19th century, “the sheer brutality of the frontier violence by the invading British” was difficult to believe. And, like today, the concept of justice itself “meant remarkably different things to a Supreme Court Judge in a capital city [compared to] an Indigenous person who had survived a massacre of their family and community”. </p>
<p>The denial of Aboriginal experiences of colonisation has been compounded by a select reading of the colonial reality: that the legal story of Australia was one of British settlement, and Aboriginal people were neither recognised as sovereign, nor permitted to exercise their own laws.</p>
<p>Black Lives, White Law follows a fairly well-trodden historical path of settler-colonial interventions into Aboriginal life. It includes the more recent history of the <a href="https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/first-australians/royal-commission-aboriginal-deaths-custody">Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody</a>, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-years-on-its-time-we-learned-the-lessons-from-the-failed-northern-territory-intervention-79198">Northern Territory Intervention</a> and beyond. And it traces <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/26/australia-entering-second-convict-age-as-imprisonment-rates-soar">the growth</a> in incarceration rates from the late 1980s onwards.</p>
<p>Australian governments have often rhetorically committed to reducing Aboriginal imprisonment. But in real terms, over the past few decades, imprisonment in general has increased, thanks to punitive laws and policies: a 130% increase (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/26/australia-entering-second-convict-age-as-imprisonment-rates-soar">measured</a> from 1985 to 2018). For First Nations people, imprisonment rates have increased drastically – they’ve more than doubled during that same period.</p>
<p>And they’re now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/26/australia-entering-second-convict-age-as-imprisonment-rates-soar">proportionally higher</a> than Black American imprisonment rates. In 2007, the Black American incarceration rate in the United States was 75% higher than the Indigenous rate in Australia. But ten years later, in 2017, Australia’s Indigenous incarceration rate for the first time exceeded the Black American rate.</p>
<p>Marks discusses the limitations of imprisonment as a crime control strategy. He notes, “it is an extraordinarily expensive and inefficient way of controlling crime”. I would have preferred to see this argument pushed beyond the pragmatic rationale of money and inefficiency, to question whether locking children, young people and adults in cages is ever justified.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494005/original/file-20221108-20-red8my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494005/original/file-20221108-20-red8my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494005/original/file-20221108-20-red8my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494005/original/file-20221108-20-red8my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494005/original/file-20221108-20-red8my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494005/original/file-20221108-20-red8my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494005/original/file-20221108-20-red8my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494005/original/file-20221108-20-red8my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A Melbourne rally on 18 June 2022: a national day of action calling for justice for Aboriginal deaths in custody.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Diego Fedele/AAP</span></span>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-not-for-me-amy-thunig-on-the-stigma-of-having-a-dad-in-lock-up-and-the-embrace-of-indigenous-academia-193527">Friday essay: 'not for me' – Amy Thunig on the stigma of having a dad in 'lock-up', and the embrace of Indigenous academia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Carceral feminism and youth imprisonment</h2>
<p>In the final chapters, Marks explores some of the major issues in the criminalisation of First Nations people. He turns his attention to the matter of <a href="https://theconversation.com/carceral-feminism-and-coercive-control-when-indigenous-women-arent-seen-as-ideal-victims-witnesses-or-women-161091">carceral feminism</a> – that is, the approach to solving the problem of violence against women through an increasing reliance on the criminalisation and incarceration of men. </p>
<p>Examples of carceral feminism include <a href="https://www.justice.qld.gov.au/initiatives/end-domestic-family-violence/our-progress/strengthening-justice-system-responses/legislative-changes">increasing penalties</a> for domestic violence orders (DVOs), the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-not-ready-to-criminalise-coercive-control-heres-why-146929">criminalisation of coercive control</a>, and current suggestions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/womens-police-stations-in-australia-would-they-work-for-all-women-165873">“women only” staffed police stations</a>.</p>
<p>Marks argues the criminal legal system is incapable of solving the problem of violence against First Nations women for various reasons, and its current approach has resulted in the increased imprisonment of both men and women. He cites <a href="https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/915">figures from Queensland</a> that show two-thirds of women sentenced to prison for breaches of domestic violence orders are Indigenous. </p>
<p>Marks also takes aim at the youth legal system, which continues to incarcerate and brutalise children – but particularly First Nations children, who <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/closing-the-gap-data/dashboard/socioeconomic/outcome-area11">comprised around 50%</a> of all children locked up at the time he was writing the book.</p>
<p>He draws on the <a href="https://www.royalcommission.gov.au/child-detention">Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children</a> in the Northern Territory to understand the violence and harm caused by the juvenile carceral system, which traumatises children who are often already traumatised (before they were imprisoned). This is exemplified by the experiences of <a href="https://theconversation.com/young-peoples-voices-are-all-but-invisible-in-the-don-dale-royal-commissions-interim-report-75618">Dylan Voller</a> and others in Darwin’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre – including violent assaults by staff, teargassing, and solitary confinement. </p>
<p>Marks also uses the NT royal commission to demonstrate the government’s failure to act on recommendations to remedy clearly identified problems. It continues to incarcerate young people in substandard conditions, and fails to seriously consider options that could substantially reduce youth imprisonment. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/carceral-feminism-and-coercive-control-when-indigenous-women-arent-seen-as-ideal-victims-witnesses-or-women-161091">Carceral feminism and coercive control: when Indigenous women aren't seen as ideal victims, witnesses or women</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Community safety</h2>
<p>The book explores what First Nations people are doing in the struggle to ensure safety within their communities. These include community (or “night”) patrols, law and justice groups, community justice groups and various <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-role-of-re-storying-in-addressing-over-incarceration-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-163577">community-generated approaches</a> – from <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-indigenous-incarceration-rates-keep-rising-justice-reinvestment-offers-a-solution-107610">justice reinvestment</a> to individual programs for helping young people in the community. And there’s the development of <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/pathways-to-justice-inquiry-into-the-incarceration-rate-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-alrc-report-133/10-access-to-justice/specialist-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-sentencing-courts/">Aboriginal sentencing courts</a> (such as the <a href="https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/courts/murri-court">Murri court</a> and <a href="https://www.mcv.vic.gov.au/about/koori-court">Koori court</a>), where First Nations people play a role in advising the court on criminal matters. </p>
<p>These initiatives have received inconsistent support (at best) from the state, and are often undermined by the scepticism of police, magistrates and other state officials. Marks questions the power of these courts to change the dominant Western legal system, when the law ultimately enforced is still the law of the settler state.</p>
<p>Yet Indigenous people continue to fight for their right to control community safety. After the fatal shooting by police of Kumanjayi Walker, the elders of Yuendumu released a statement demanding greater power to make decisions. They unambiguously stated that their night patrol and community police should be at the forefront of ensuring their community’s wellbeing. </p>
<p>They demanded Warlpiri law be recognised and respected. They demanded a role in assessing and evaluating every police officer who comes to work in their community. And they demanded police in their community not be armed with guns and other lethal weapons. </p>
<p>These are radical demands, but they are completely consistent with the localised control over policing that First Nations peoples have insisted on for decades. After Rolfe’s acquittal for the murder of Kumanjayi Walker, Ned Tjampitjinpa Hargraves, a Yuendumu Elder and Lawman, <a href="https://jumbunna.institute/2022/03/11/walker-family-yuendumu-elders-condemn-rolfe-not-guilty-verdict/">stated</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The court didn’t take action, so we need to take action on the ground in our communities to protect ourselves … We have waited for too long. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Aboriginal justice</h2>
<p>There is some discussion of Aboriginal justice agreements in the book, although it’s relatively short. A more nuanced discussion of their role would have been useful. It’s especially relevant for the Northern Territory, where the current <a href="https://justice.nt.gov.au/attorney-general-and-justice/northern-territory-aboriginal-justice-agreement/the-agreement">Aboriginal Justice Agreement (2021-2027)</a> is being implemented. (I note this particularly in the context of Hargraves’ comments, and the Yuendumu demands.) </p>
<p>One of the core principles underpinning the agreement is a commitment to local decision-making on a range of matters concerning law and justice. No doubt it will be a struggle for communities to ensure this principle is acted on in practice. </p>
<p>The outcome of First Nations struggles for recognition and autonomy from the settler-colonial state are not predetermined – and the end result is far from certain. The settler-colonial state is not a finished product. </p>
<p>The conflict between Indigenous governance and the settler state may result in new legal and administrative spaces: neither completely decolonised nor completely colonial, but reflecting a point in time. Incomplete in themselves, in an enduring political and historic conflict.</p>
<p>In the conclusion of Black Lives, White Law, Marks acknowledges the book is not about solutions; it’s about identifying the problems. This book certainly does that, comprehensively. </p>
<p>Marks does not pretend to have all the answers – unlike so many whitefellas before him, all too anxious to push their own barrows of policies and programs. And there are multiple different ways the future may unfold. </p>
<p>What’s clear is that mass criminalisation and incarceration is not justice and it is not a solution for First Nations people. Though it appears a convenient way for the settler state to avoid coming to terms with its own history of dispossession, genocide and racism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191005/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Cunneen is working on the implementation of the Aboriginal Justice Agreement with the Aboriginal Justice Unit in the NT Department of Attorney-General and Justice</span></em></p>Russell Marks’ Black Lives, White Law is not about solutions; it’s about identifying the problems with Australia’s criminal legal system, and the injustice it does to First Nations people.Chris Cunneen, Professor of Criminology, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1935272022-11-03T19:00:48Z2022-11-03T19:00:48ZFriday essay: ‘not for me’ – Amy Thunig on the stigma of having a dad in ‘lock-up’, and the embrace of Indigenous academia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492500/original/file-20221031-24-yxzsa2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3637%2C2577&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cover short credit Iron Monkey</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The energy of academic conferences isn’t like your average conference. It is the bringing together of academics from universities all around the country, sometimes around the globe, all working within similar or related specialisations. This means one thing: niche gossip and lots of it. There’s a reason why so many academics love reality television – we have intensely intellectual, oftentimes dry jobs, meaning much of the juicy elements of our roles come from the interpersonal relationships.</p>
<p>At conferences you may sit across from someone who is later on your grant or hiring panel. Though there is, of course, no formal segregation anymore, exclusions and separations based on class, race, and privilege continue.</p>
<p>Presentations by Indigenous academics are often attended by almost entirely Indigenous audiences, and when the proceedings break for lunch we tend to find one another out on the grass somewhere, sitting in the shade, catching up on everyone’s business. </p>
<p>Indigenous academic gossip is different though; many of us are connected through bloodline or marriage, and informal gatherings within formal proceedings allow us to check in on each other’s relations, and keep atop of the cultural safety (or lack thereof) in different institutions and teams. These are the kind of yarns you wouldn’t put in emails. </p>
<p>Learning the rhythm, language and protocol of the academy was a difficult journey. I relied on Indigenous academics to be my guides, to steer me through engagements that instead of allowing me to succeed because of what I do know, would rather see me penalised based on what I didn’t.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492487/original/file-20221031-16-ijve13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492487/original/file-20221031-16-ijve13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492487/original/file-20221031-16-ijve13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492487/original/file-20221031-16-ijve13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492487/original/file-20221031-16-ijve13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492487/original/file-20221031-16-ijve13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492487/original/file-20221031-16-ijve13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492487/original/file-20221031-16-ijve13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘I relied on Indigenous academics to be my guides.’ Amy Thunig with Associate Professor Kathleen Butler, a Bundjalung and Worimi woman, and head of Wollotuka, where Amy was a junior academic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iron Monkey Photography</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Belonging and unbelonging</h2>
<p>My first academic conference is on Kaurna Country, Adelaide. Work flies me over and I am so excited, I almost bounce into the hotel on the first day. But by the end of that first day, I am deflated.</p>
<p>During the niceties of mingling and meeting I find myself standing within a gathering of mostly white academics and am asked:</p>
<p>“Is this your first time here in Adelaide?”</p>
<p>“No, I lived here for a while as a kid.” </p>
<p>“Oh, really? What was that for?”</p>
<p>“Dad had work here so we moved over as a family for maybe six months, a year.”</p>
<p>‘Where did you live?“</p>
<p>These academics must be from here. </p>
<p>"Yatala.”</p>
<p>I answer without thinking too much about it. I haven’t been here in 20 years but that name sounds about right. Yet with my answer, the energy of the small group shifts. I can tell in their faces and in my belly that I have erred, that I am erring, and I am not sure how.</p>
<p>An Indigenous man in the small group, who doesn’t know me but clearly does realise what I have done, chimes in: “Nah, you lived in the city, sis. I think you got the names a bit mixed up there.”</p>
<p>There’s a release of tension – everyone laughs awkwardly – and when the crowd disperses my colleague quietly tells me <a href="https://www.corrections.sa.gov.au/prison/prison-locations/yatala-labour-prison">Yatala</a> is the name of the prison. The maximum-security prison.</p>
<p>“One of your parents in lock-up?” he asks gently.</p>
<p>I feel the hot blush rise from my chest and spread across my face as I nod.</p>
<p>“Just say you lived in the city – don’t let the gubbas get you down.”</p>
<p>I call Mum when I am back in my room that night. She laughs at the story and reminds me we lived in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth,_South_Australia">Elizabeth</a>. Then her tone changes and she asks me not to bring it up again; she wants to blank it.</p>
<p>“Did anyone comment on your clothes?” Mum asks, changing the subject. She volunteers in an op-shop and over the past year has been gathering professional business clothes for me whenever they come into the shop in good condition and in my size.</p>
<p>“Yeah! Actually a woman complimented me on my dress today, it’s the pretty floral one you got me, Mum.”</p>
<p>She is pleased and on that note we hang up. I slip out of my gifted $3 dress and go to bed but I don’t sleep. I am so cross at myself. I am not embarrassed that my dad was in lock-up; I am shamed that I said the wrong thing, that I wasn’t in control with my response. I am overwhelmed with the sense that I do not belong here, that the academy is not for me, and I am not for it.</p>
<p>This spiral sends me emotionally back to when I was a child, and I was forever confused and often accidentally saying the wrong thing. To when I didn’t know it was a prison we were visiting Dad in because everyone taught me he was simply at “work”.</p>
<p>I fly home at the end of that conference but I’m still caught in that mental loop, thinking back to the time we spent on Kaurna Country as kids, remembering when our only way there and back was driving.</p>
<h2>Dad can’t leave</h2>
<p>Dad is locked up for much of my very early childhood and during that time I really don’t have a whole understanding of prisons, or how different our family is from others. I understand and have witnessed the violence of police – but the end point of that process is lost on me – the idea that adults would be forcibly caged is not a concept I have been introduced to.</p>
<p>In fact, it is something my family try actively to shield me from. The lie of Dad being at “work” leaves me with a confused but naive understanding of what is happening when we visit Dad in prison. As a child I may not understand why these places scare me, though they do and I resent the fact that Dad can’t leave. But that is far better than carrying the full knowledge that my dad is caged. It also means that when I inevitably talk when I shouldn’t, people outside of our family won’t know Dad has been away in lock-up; they too will be led to think he is away for work.</p>
<p>All I know is that Dad’s “workplace” is in a place called Adelaide; while he is there, he isn’t allowed to come home. When we visit, it is a really, really, long drive. And when we arrive at the “worksite” we have to pass through lots of tall fences, doors, and various checkpoints. While we wait to be processed through the metal detectors, I notice that some of the people who work here have guns.</p>
<p>No one is friendly, and as eager as I am to see Dad, this place is a bit scary. We don’t get to take any possessions in with us and Mum has to hand over her bag before we can go in. When we finally get to be in the same room as Dad, I think he looks handsome in his all-green uniform. Everyone in that room, talking with their loved ones, is wearing prison greens. Green like my mum’s eyes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-30-years-after-mabo-what-do-australias-battler-stories-and-their-evasions-say-about-who-we-are-187110">Friday essay: 30 years after Mabo, what do Australia's battler stories – and their evasions – say about who we are?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>My safe person</h2>
<p>The car splutters to a stop, overheating, as we are driving overloaded, long distance to our new home interstate. South Australia, Kaurna Country. The car seems to be matching Mum’s erratic energy, which has also become lulled right before the car rolled to a stop. I’ve given up trying to work out what we are doing.</p>
<p>Before we left, Mum had thrown some of our belongings into the car and announced that we were moving to be closer to Dad. Maybe because I am so young, three years old, maybe four, and maybe because I never know when or how to keep quiet, everyone around me refers to Dad as being “away for work”.</p>
<p>It’s been a while since the police took him away, and we miss him terribly, and even more since my baby brother died. The distance between our home and where Dad is based is a 15-hour drive each way and Mum has had enough. We can’t afford flights and she can’t keep driving back and forth with us kids – it’s time to move there.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492491/original/file-20221031-26-1gv504.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492491/original/file-20221031-26-1gv504.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492491/original/file-20221031-26-1gv504.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492491/original/file-20221031-26-1gv504.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492491/original/file-20221031-26-1gv504.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492491/original/file-20221031-26-1gv504.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492491/original/file-20221031-26-1gv504.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492491/original/file-20221031-26-1gv504.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amy Thunig as a baby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Saying goodbye to our grandparents was hard. I don’t want to be away from Pop. I belong in his home, in the mulberry tree picking fruit to eat and squish between my fingers. I belong with him, and lately he has been picking me up a few mornings a week and taking me to the pool. He has to do physio for his back. If I wait patiently on the side of the pool while he does his exercise, he then brings me into the water, teaching me how to kick and move my arms so I can keep my head above the water.</p>
<p>Pop, Mum’s dad, is my safe person: consistent, kind, calm. I am with him a lot, sometimes swimming, often fishing. He takes me away to his own mother-in-law’s, to Great-Grandma Lucy’s house on Yuin Country, where we fish every morning and he tells me all about our kin creatures who live in the river. The octopuses there are cheeky and steal our bait. I don’t want to be away from him, and I could tell by his face as Mum told him we were leaving that he was worried. He kept shooting glances at me and Lisa – I don’t want him to be worried.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-we-are-the-voice-why-we-need-more-indigenous-editors-182222">Friday essay: we are the voice – why we need more Indigenous editors</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Dad is here for work</h2>
<p>Now, on that long drive to Adelaide, when we eventually get the car back on the road again, Mum alternates between muttering to herself and singing along to Patsy Cline’s <a href="https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/107717/">Crazy</a>. I am bored, carsick, and already missing my pop. Moving house is horrible and I think maybe I hate it.</p>
<p>When we arrive at the new home, I can’t help but think it looks and smells funny. The carpets are all weird bright colours; my sister takes the room with the orange carpet, mine is purple. There are no curtains in the windows, and that first night, with the moonlight filtering through the branches of the old tree that scrapes against my window, I become convinced that if I move, something that is waiting will see me and gobble me up. I lay still in my new bed and by morning I have wet it, soaking through the sheets and my pyjamas. Mum is disappointed but not as much as I am disappointed in myself. I will be starting at a new preschool and I don’t want the other kids to think I am a baby – only babies wet their beds.</p>
<p>Over the coming weeks we build a bit of a routine in that new house. Some days Mum doesn’t wake up or get out of bed. With no family close by to come around and help, I soon discover that though I am not tall enough to reach the cupboards, if I open the cutlery drawer I can use it like a step to climb atop the kitchen benches. From there I can get to the Weetbix and bowls. The first few times I attempt to pour my own milk, I make a big mess and do a clumsy and loud job of cleaning up, but this doesn’t wake Mum and I eventually get the hang of it. If Mum is still asleep, I will have Weetbix for lunch too, and play while I wait for Lisa to walk home from big school.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492489/original/file-20221031-18-8wn1t6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492489/original/file-20221031-18-8wn1t6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492489/original/file-20221031-18-8wn1t6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492489/original/file-20221031-18-8wn1t6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492489/original/file-20221031-18-8wn1t6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492489/original/file-20221031-18-8wn1t6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492489/original/file-20221031-18-8wn1t6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492489/original/file-20221031-18-8wn1t6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Preschool ‘feels like a very empowering place to be’. Amy at kindgergarten.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the days when Mum does wake up, I go to preschool. Always, before we get out of the car, Mum reminds me that we are in Adelaide because Dad is here for work.</p>
<p>“Work, Amy, do you understand?”</p>
<p>“Yes, Mum.”</p>
<p>I am suspicious and she can tell but I don’t want to do or say the wrong thing. Whenever families are spoken about at preschool, I make sure I mention Dad is at “work”. I like being at preschool. There is a small kitchen but it isn’t like the one at home where everything is too big and I have to do things alone. Here the benches are real low and there are grown-ups who help us learn to make and butter our own toast. It feels like a very empowering place to be.</p>
<p>Each day that we are there, all of the children are expected to have naps. Green camping beds are brought out from the storage closet and everyone lays on their own bed, quickly drifting off to sleep. I have never been made to have naps before and am not in the habit of sleeping during the day. So I remain awake and often chat to my neighbours.</p>
<p>The educators quickly work out that small acts of bribery are the most effective way to get me to comply with instructions and we soon come to an understanding. When the camp beds are brought out, so too is a little white paper bag with a couple of lollies inside. One of the teachers will quietly place the bag in my chunky little hand, and with a wink reminds me that if I am quiet for all of nap time, then I can secretly eat the lollies when everyone wakes up. Every day I lay quiet and still, lolly bag hidden within my fist, held under my pillow for nap time, and in the chaos of pack-away time I eat my treats with gusto.</p>
<p>Being in this new neighbourhood means we are able to visit Dad regularly but some of the people around our new home make me uncomfortable. Sometimes I get hurt and there isn’t an adult around to help me. I miss our townhouse, the toys we had to leave behind, and my grandparents, especially fishing with Pop.</p>
<p>We don’t last that long in Adelaide, not quite a year. Then Mum packs up the car and we drive back to our townhouse on Dharug Country. I am glad to be back with our community, to be back with Pop. Not until I am almost six years old does Dad come home for good and we all live together in the townhouse again.</p>
<p>As soon as Dad is home, I begin to beg my parents for a little sister. I believe in my heart of hearts that if I can have a little sister, she will be my best friend. Within the year they conceive Taylah, who comes earthside on Dharug Country.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shannon-burns-childhood-is-a-story-of-disconnection-neglect-violence-and-poverty-186114">Shannon Burns' Childhood is a story of disconnection, neglect, violence and poverty</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>My dad as my teacher</h2>
<p>My dad is many things – a roofer, a labourer, a partner, a convicted bank robber – and to me he is a teacher and a translator in a world I sometimes struggle to understand. When we garden together he draws my attention to the flowers, and specifically the bees, instructing me to observe the way they hover over the blooms, collecting the pollen and going on to make honey.</p>
<p>As a child I will eat several of those purple flowers before he realises I have misunderstood his lesson on pollination.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492497/original/file-20221031-11-vaun8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="book cover: Amy Thunig's Tell Me Again: a woman in a long dress, emerging from water" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492497/original/file-20221031-11-vaun8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492497/original/file-20221031-11-vaun8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492497/original/file-20221031-11-vaun8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492497/original/file-20221031-11-vaun8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492497/original/file-20221031-11-vaun8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492497/original/file-20221031-11-vaun8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492497/original/file-20221031-11-vaun8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Though the house is tiny, the linen cupboard is filled with books, the air is regularly filled with music and our mother is always reading, and sometimes dancing. We watch NRL as a family, always barracking for the Bunnies; we stay up late to watch documentaries on orcas, plants, lions and more, where we learn about the circle of life together. My parents don’t seem to believe in censoring what we watch and so I see it all: guts and gore, death and life.</p>
<p>I learn many lessons in that home, sometimes intentional, sometimes through the rapid shifting of environments that waver between storm and peace. </p>
<p>Out the back of this townhouse there is a pergola draped in a green screen to protect from the intense summer sun, and a barbecue made of red brick. A small vegetable patch where Dad grows plants you can and can’t find at a local nursery, and a clothesline where Dad pegs a pillow, which he holds as he teaches my sister and me how to punch, our thumbs correctly placed to avoid broken bones.</p>
<p><em>Never tolerate disrespect: it isn’t just about that person, it’s about everyone watching on</em>, he often tells us.</p>
<p>Dad talks to us as my sister and I take turns hitting the pillow. Sometimes he stops to correct our stance, our technique, but mostly he praises and encourages us.</p>
<p><em>Life is a series of systems, Lou. You can move and survive anywhere if you understand respect, relationship and reciprocity.</em></p>
<p>These lessons are taught with words but also with role modelling.</p>
<p>When I tire of punching, Dad focuses on Lisa’s technique; she is older by five years and has better endurance. I sit on the grass and Mum helps me fill up my tiny doll pool, playing with my Barbies as my sister moves with agility, her effort audible. <em>Ouss, ouss</em>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/carceral-feminism-and-coercive-control-when-indigenous-women-arent-seen-as-ideal-victims-witnesses-or-women-161091">Carceral feminism and coercive control: when Indigenous women aren't seen as ideal victims, witnesses or women</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Violence of prison systems</h2>
<p>A couple of years later I watch a movie on the violence of prison systems – I am too young for it but I had been left home alone and it was on the television. In my naivety, I still don’t realise that prison is where Dad was when we say he was at work, so I simply store away the information from that movie. </p>
<p>Sometime after, I’m out on a drive with Dad; we talk about anything and everything when we are in the car alone together. I tell him all about the grown-up show about prisons I had watched, and comment that maybe people in this country who go to jail should just be killed like they are in America because jail seems like such a rotten place.</p>
<p>Dad is so shocked by what I have said that the car swerves across the road momentarily, and as he restores his face and the car to the right side of the road, that’s when it clicks: I realise all those times we were visiting Dad at “work” he was in fact in prison. I feel horrible for what I said, and begin to think about the violence I saw in that movie, and how that must have been what it was like for Dad.</p>
<p>As a teenager, after seeing Dad regularly leaving the toilet with an empty coffee cup, I begin to chide him about how disgusting I think it is when he reads and drinks his coffee on the toilet. Dad and I regularly engage in playful but intense arguments, and I am getting better at annihilating him in them. </p>
<p>“How is drinking coffee in there any different to when the toilet is next to your bed in a cell?” he retorts, confident in his argument.</p>
<p>“Dad, I would say the difference is: this isn’t prison. No one’s trying to punish you. Go drink your coffee in the sun.”</p>
<p>Touché.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from Amy Thunig’s memoir, <a href="https://www.uqp.com.au/books/tell-me-again">Tell Me Again</a> (UQP).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193527/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Thunig is the author of the book 'Tell Me Again' from which this extract has been drawn, and a signed author with University of Queensland Press (UQP).</span></em></p>As a young child, Amy Thunig, a Gomeroi/Gamilaroi/Kamilaroi woman, moved with her family to be near her father, who was incarcerated in Adelaide. It was a difficult time, but he has taught her much.Amy Thunig, Lecturer, Macquarie School of Education, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1870652022-07-20T12:20:11Z2022-07-20T12:20:11ZRussia’s mass kidnappings of Ukrainians are a page out of a wartime playbook – and evidence of genocide<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474948/original/file-20220719-14-34omgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5444%2C3602&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman runs from a house on fire after shelling in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine in June 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PicturesoftheWeek-Global-PhotoGallery/2ca5448f82104d6d8c3f0d8af53de065/photo">AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-accuses-russia-forcibly-deporting-over-210000-children-2022-05-13/">months of speculation</a>, U.S. Secretary of State <a href="https://www.state.gov/russias-filtration-operations-forced-disappearances-and-mass-deportations-of-ukrainian-citizens/">Antony Blinken confirmed</a> on July 13, 2022, that Russia had forcibly relocated between 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainians into Russia. </p>
<p>Blinken cited various sources, including eyewitness accounts and the Russian government, to confirm that Russia is removing Ukrainians from their country and making them pass through filtration camps, where some are detained and even disappear.</p>
<p>Approximately 260,000 of these Ukrainian deportees are children, including orphans and others separated from their parents.</p>
<p>Blinken, in addition to <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/14/russia-forcible-disappearances-ukrainian-civilians">major human rights</a> organizations, says the Russian deportations may be a war crime. </p>
<p><a href="https://tass.com/politics/1479755">Russia acknowledges</a> that it has moved Ukrainian adults and <a href="https://tass.com/politics/1471315">children</a> out of the war-torn country, but has said the moves are “voluntary” and done for “humanitarian” reasons. </p>
<p>But Russia <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/publications/refugeemag/3b5555124/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass.html">has a history</a> of forcibly moving large numbers of civilians as a war and political tactic. </p>
<p>Other aggressors of war have also forced civilians to move for various reasons – like eliminating a perceived <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/problems-of-genocide/1C48C9BAE4A2CA4EA6727F19771651A6">security threat</a>, or the potential to grab the wealth, possessions and property the deportees are forced to leave behind.</p>
<p>In the process of achieving these two aims, perpetrators often commit <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml">atrocity crimes</a>, a broad international legal term that encompasses war crimes, <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/learn-about-genocide-and-other-mass-atrocities/what-is-genocide">genocide</a> and <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/crimes-against-humanity.shtml">crimes against humanity</a>. Distinct but overlapping, these atrocity crimes can all involve mass deportation. The United Nations’ definition of genocide includes the forced transfer of children. </p>
<p>Russia’s mass deportation of Ukrainians implicates it in all three of these crimes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474951/original/file-20220719-24-wk5vbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two soldiers stand in front of a charred, 5 story residential building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474951/original/file-20220719-24-wk5vbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474951/original/file-20220719-24-wk5vbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474951/original/file-20220719-24-wk5vbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474951/original/file-20220719-24-wk5vbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474951/original/file-20220719-24-wk5vbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474951/original/file-20220719-24-wk5vbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474951/original/file-20220719-24-wk5vbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ukrainian soldiers stand in front of a damaged residential building in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on July 19, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mapi.associatedpress.com/v1/items/cd5e768653514b789ac3a854cb3f965e/preview/AP22200461859542.jpg?wm=api&tag=app_id=1,user_id=904438,org_id=101781">Nariman El-Mofty/Associated Press</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Deporting for economic gain</h2>
<p>In international law, <a href="https://www.casematrixnetwork.org/cmn-knowledge-hub/elements-digest/art-7/7-1-d/3/#3-1-1">mass deportation</a> refers to coerced, large-scale population movements across a country’s borders. <a href="https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/deportation-1/">Forced transfer</a> involves moving groups of people within a country. </p>
<p>Often an agressor’s aim is to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623520601056240">seize land</a>. As I note in <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479808014/it-can-happen-here/">It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US</a>, the U.S. has forcibly moved people more than once.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Indian-Removal-Act">Indian Removal Act of 1830</a>, for example, authorized the mass deportation of as many as 80,000 Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River to the Indian Territory, much of which is now part of Oklahoma. <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/the-worlds-first-mass-deportation-took-place-on-american-soil">This forced migration</a> resulted in enormous suffering and death. </p>
<p>The U.S. later deported or forcibly transferred other groups, including more than 110,000 <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation">Japanese and Japanese Americans</a> during World War II. The U.S. also moved millions of <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/11/455613993/it-came-up-in-the-debate-here-are-3-things-to-know-about-operation-wetback">Mexicans and Mexican Americans</a> to Mexico in the 1930s and ‘40s and <a href="https://www.history.com/news/operation-wetback-eisenhower-1954-deportation">again in 1954</a>. These deportations were justified by the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/11/11/9714842/operation-wetback">false claim</a> that Mexicans were stealing American jobs. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474956/original/file-20220719-12-w4gj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo shows people burning leaves in front of a mountain range." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474956/original/file-20220719-12-w4gj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474956/original/file-20220719-12-w4gj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474956/original/file-20220719-12-w4gj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474956/original/file-20220719-12-w4gj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474956/original/file-20220719-12-w4gj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474956/original/file-20220719-12-w4gj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474956/original/file-20220719-12-w4gj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People burn leaves at the Manzanar Japanese American internment camp in California in 1943.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/manzanar-is-most-widely-known-as-the-site-of-one-of-ten-camps-where-picture-id1354476884?s=2048x2048">Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Deporting 'security threats’</h2>
<p>A second motive for forcibly moving a population is the perceived <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/problems-of-genocide/1C48C9BAE4A2CA4EA6727F19771651A6">threat</a> posed by demonized groups.</p>
<p>This was the United States’ justification for <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation">Japanese internment</a>. </p>
<p>But there are many other historical examples, such as the Ottoman Empire’s World War I deportation of <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-armenian-genocide-1915-16-overview">Armenians</a> and other Christian groups. </p>
<p>The Nazis also undertook mass deportations and population transfers during the <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust">Holocaust</a>, most infamously through <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/deportations">train transports</a> of Jews to death camps in Poland. They also carried out <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/death-marches">death marches</a> at the end of the war. </p>
<p>I have conducted <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765698/anthropological-witness/#bookTabs=1">research</a> on the Khmer Rouge Communist regime in <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/cambodia">Cambodia</a>, in power from 1975 through 1979.</p>
<p>Immediately after the Khmer Rouge seized power, they forced over 2 million urban dwellers to <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/blog/experiencing-forced-displacement-cambodia">relocate</a> into the countryside, in part due to falsified security concerns. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474957/original/file-20220719-4704-8z67k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo shows the backs of soldiers, facing a small crowd of people carrying suitcases in front of trains" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474957/original/file-20220719-4704-8z67k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474957/original/file-20220719-4704-8z67k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474957/original/file-20220719-4704-8z67k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474957/original/file-20220719-4704-8z67k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474957/original/file-20220719-4704-8z67k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474957/original/file-20220719-4704-8z67k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474957/original/file-20220719-4704-8z67k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nazis notoriously carried out a large-scale forced deportation of Jews and others to concentration camps.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/circa-1941-nazi-officers-supervise-jews-leaving-railway-trucks-during-picture-id3303544?s=2048x2048">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Russia’s mass deportations and filtration camps</h2>
<p>Now, as <a href="https://www.state.gov/russias-filtration-operations-forced-disappearances-and-mass-deportations-of-ukrainian-citizens/">Blinken</a> and others have noted, Russia has established at least 18 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/17/world/europe/more-accounts-of-abuses-in-so-called-russian-filtration-camps-in-new-report-adds-to-international-concern.html">filtration camps</a>, where they take Ukrainian deportees’ biometric data, which <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/biometrics">are unique</a>, physical characteristics, like fingerprints.</p>
<p>These camps serve to filter out people Russia deems dangerous, including members of the Ukrainian military, government and media. Those identified as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/11/ukraine-refugees-russia-filtration-camps/">suspect</a> are often harassed, abused and even tortured.</p>
<p>Ukrainians have reportedly <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/ukrainians-forcibly-deported-russian-filtration-camps/story?id=86898080">disappeared</a> following their entry to the camps.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/30/ukraine-mariupol-russia-evacuation-filtration/">Eyewitnesses say</a> that those deported from Russia also face harsh conditions and have little choice about where they go. </p>
<p>There are also reports that <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220614-un-warns-against-adoption-of-ukrainian-children-in-russia">some of the Ukrainian children</a> have been placed for adoption in Russia.</p>
<p>Still, it is difficult for outsiders to talk with the victims and get detailed accounts, since many deportees have been sent to <a href="https://www.state.gov/russias-filtration-operations-forced-disappearances-and-mass-deportations-of-ukrainian-citizens/">remote areas of Russia</a> without their phones or Ukrainian passports.</p>
<h2>Russia’s playbook</h2>
<p>Mass deportation and forced transfers of civilians are considered <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/crimes-against-humanity.shtml">crimes against humanity</a> under international law when undertaken in a “widespread or systematic” manner during peace or war. Such deportations and population transfers are also considered <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/war-crimes.shtml">war crimes</a> if committed during armed conflict.</p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/13/osce-investigation-russia-ukraine-human-rights/">substantial evidence</a> that Russia has committed both of these crimes, given the deportations and additional <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/15/russia-escalating-attacks-on-civilians-says-top-ukrainian-official">widespread attacks on Ukrainian civilians</a>, including rapes and other kinds of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/08/ukraine-rape-sexual-violence/">sexual violence</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, one <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf">part of genocide</a> is “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Russia’s deportation of orphans and children separated from parents would constitute such a crime if there is genocidal intent. </p>
<p>Russian President Vladimir <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/24/putin-denazify-ukraine/">Putin’s comments</a> that he wants to “denazify” Ukraine suggest such intent is present. </p>
<p>Russia’s mass deportations should not be surprising. </p>
<p>In the past, Russia has repeatedly committed <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2010/09/23/naimark-stalin-genocide-092310/">genocide</a> and other international crimes while forcibly moving people for economic gain and to deal with perceived threats. These aims connect to Russia’s long-standing <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/the-war-in-ukraine-is-a-colonial-war">imperialist ambitions</a>.</p>
<p>In the mid-1800s, for example, the Russian Empire deported hundreds of thousands of <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-circassian-genocide/9780813560670">Circassians</a>, a North Caucasus group, into the Ottoman Empire. Russia also <a href="https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/soviet-massive-deportations-chronology.html">forcibly relocated</a> numerous other groups, including Ukrainians, during the period of the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/publications/refugeemag/3b5555124/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass.html">Soviet Union</a>. </p>
<p>In Ukraine, then, Russia is taking a page out of a well-worn wartime playbook. There are indications that this time Russia may be held to account. </p>
<p>Russia’s crimes are being investigated by the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/17/icc-sends-largest-ever-investigative-team-to-war-torn-ukraine">International Criminal Court</a>. And, almost immediately after Russia’s invasion, Ukraine began <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/05/23/transcript-world-stage-ukraine-with-ukraine-prosecutor-general-iryna-venediktova/">gathering evidence</a> of Russian atrocity crimes. Ukraine has documented more than 23,000 war crimes cases against Russia, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-kyiv-netherlands-the-hague-d720ae1f6801731d1979dcdaa988997a">14 European countries</a> have launched investigations.</p>
<p>Russia’s mass deportations, and especially its forced transfer of <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russian-genocide-children-deportation-venediktova/31881902.html">children</a>, are central to the case that Russia has also committed genocide in Ukraine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187065/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Hinton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Russia and other countries and political regimes have a long history of forcing people to move, mostly for security and economic gains.Alexander Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1842222022-06-02T18:52:52Z2022-06-02T18:52:52ZImprisoned citizens face barriers to voting in Ontario<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466818/original/file-20220602-22-k1xuy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6709%2C4416&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thousands of imprisoned persons in Ontario faced barriers to voting in the June 2 provincial election. Many will also be explicitly barred from voting in the upcoming municipal elections in October.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many Ontario citizens faced barriers to voting in the June 2 general election. In a process known as <a href="https://twitter.com/CPEPgroup/status/1529229408451833857?cxt=HHwWgsDR7e6C9bgqAAAA">disenfranchisement by process</a>, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2019018-eng.htm">thousands of imprisoned persons</a> in Ontario experience obstacles to voting. Many will also be <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/elections/voter-information/who-can-vote/">explicitly barred</a> from voting in the upcoming <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/municipal-elections">municipal elections in October</a>.</p>
<p>Enfranchisement refers to the rights of full citizenship, including the right to vote. Disenfranchisement, on the other hand, refers to the procedural roadblocks that prevent imprisoned people from being able to vote easily. </p>
<p>This is despite a <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/2010/index.do">2002 Supreme Court of Canada ruling</a> that affirmed imprisoned people have the right to vote under Section 3 of <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html#:%7E:text=1%20The%20Canadian%20Charter%20of,a%20free%20and%20democratic%20society">the Charter of Rights and Freedoms</a>.</p>
<p>Crucially, disenfranchisement disproportionately impacts marginalized Canadians. <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-44567-6_5">Indigenous</a>, <a href="https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/policing-black-lives">Black</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137388476">disabled</a> and <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/prisons-of-poverty">poor</a> people are all imprisoned at higher rates, and are more likely to face barriers to voting because of disenfranchisement by process.</p>
<h2>Prisoners have the right to vote</h2>
<p>Scholars use the term <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362480617731203">carceral citizens</a> to refer to people who are criminalized and face significant constraints to participating fully in social, economic and political life.</p>
<p>Issues that impact the general public are also issues that impact imprisoned people. As critical public policy and criminology scholars active in community work, we spoke with current and formerly imprisoned people to hear about how they experienced voting in Ontario’s prisons.</p>
<p>Interviewees told us the majority of imprisoned people return to their communities, so it is important for them to have a democratic voice and stake in the communities they return to. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a T-shirt and sweatpants leans over a table to fill out paperwork with a pen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466820/original/file-20220602-11-792gpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466820/original/file-20220602-11-792gpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466820/original/file-20220602-11-792gpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466820/original/file-20220602-11-792gpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466820/original/file-20220602-11-792gpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466820/original/file-20220602-11-792gpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466820/original/file-20220602-11-792gpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An inmate casts his ballot for the federal election at the Montréal Detention Centre in June 2004.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CP PHOTO/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One recently released federally imprisoned person, and former chair of the inmate committee at Joyceville Institution, Kevin Belanger, shared his thoughts about why being allowed to vote is so crucial: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I think it’s very important for us to vote … it allows guys to feel, even a little bit, a part of society, to know that their vote counts. But we really are voting with a disadvantage because we are not educated on what is going on. This is because of many parties not realizing that if they want our vote, they need to send us something so we know their positions, because if not, we’re going to be guessing.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another recently released federally imprisoned person, James Ruston, shared his perspective about political engagement as a prisoner:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“As a long-term prisoner, I learned to regret the lack of mindful concern for the community in my past choices. In my exile, I came to believe in the value of social relationships that inspires an inclusive respect for a nurturing and collaborative social contract. Being supported to vote, to make decisions about my community, endears me to that community.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Barriers to voting</h2>
<p>Interviewees told us there are a variety of legislative, bureaucratic and procedural issues that act as roadblocks to voting inside Ontario prisons. </p>
<p>Ruston said that insufficient communication from correctional facilities can prevent prisoners from even knowing how to register in the first place. Belanger said that barriers to literacy can also prevent some imprisoned people from accessing this important information.</p>
<p>When an election is called, a prison staff member is appointed as an <a href="https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=bkg&document=ec90545&lang=e">election liaison</a>. They are responsible for <a href="https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=bkg&document=ec90545&lang=e">advertising the election and registering voters</a>. Imprisoned people must fill out their ballots in the <a href="https://www.thewhig.com/2018/06/07/inmates-exercise-their-right-to-vote">presence of the liaison officer</a>, and are not permitted privacy when voting.</p>
<p>The final deadline for registration occurs before the deadline for the general public. Those who do not register in time are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/on-inmate-voting-day-prisoners-plan-legal-case-over-2018-ontario-vote-1.5314180">barred from voting</a>. This happened to several women in a Kitchener correctional institution in 2018 when their elections liaison officer <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/on-inmate-voting-day-prisoners-plan-legal-case-over-2018-ontario-vote-1.5314180">failed to hand out voter registration forms in time</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="The outside of a correctional institution" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466821/original/file-20220602-22-53c8hc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466821/original/file-20220602-22-53c8hc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466821/original/file-20220602-22-53c8hc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466821/original/file-20220602-22-53c8hc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466821/original/file-20220602-22-53c8hc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466821/original/file-20220602-22-53c8hc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466821/original/file-20220602-22-53c8hc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A group of inmates from Grand Valley Institution for Women were denied the ability to vote in the 2018 provincial election because of an administrative error.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Geoff Robins</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Those who do register still might not get to cast their votes. Seventy-seven per cent of people in provincial prisons are in remand, meaning they have not been sentenced and may be imprisoned for a short amount of time. Prisoners who have registered to vote inside prisons, but are released before the voting date, are <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90e06#BK128">not permitted to vote by the regular process</a>. </p>
<p>In the 2015 Canadian federal election there was a 50.5 per cent turnout of imprisoned voters compared to 68 per cent in the public — and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-votes-2019-voting-incarcerated-house-arrest-1.5285711">7.5 per cent of votes from imprisoned people were rejected</a>. By comparison, only <a href="https://www.elections.ca/res/rep/off/ovr2015app/41/table3E.html">0.7 per cent were rejected</a> overall in Canada. </p>
<p>Further, if there are any delays and special ballots do not arrive to be processed in time, <a href="https://www.thepost.on.ca/news/national/elections-canada-205000-mail-in-ballots-were-not-counted">they will not be counted</a>, as happened with 205,000 ballots in the 2022 election. </p>
<h2>Pandemic-specific barriers</h2>
<p>Pandemic restrictions have resulted in a number of unique enfranchisement barriers. Since there are still <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/correctional-service/campaigns/covid-19/inmate-testing.html#O2">active COVID-19 cases</a> and <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/correctional-service/campaigns/covid-19/visits/status.html">restrictions</a> at Ontario prisons, these barriers are ongoing.</p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/correctional-service/campaigns/covid-19/plans-preparation/integrated-risk-management-framework.html">Shaping the New Normal Risk Management Framework</a> (available through <a href="https://ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/43358">freedom of information</a>), items are not to be shared between imprisoned people during times of COVID-19 risk. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Canada Correctional Facilities sign for the Atlantic Institution" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466823/original/file-20220602-14-ovq588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466823/original/file-20220602-14-ovq588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466823/original/file-20220602-14-ovq588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466823/original/file-20220602-14-ovq588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466823/original/file-20220602-14-ovq588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466823/original/file-20220602-14-ovq588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466823/original/file-20220602-14-ovq588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A group of imprisoned people in New Brunswick were unable to vote in the 2019 federal election because of an institutional lockdown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, non-profits that support prospective voters have sometimes been barred from doing their work inside prisons. This was the case in <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510015401">Saskatchewan for Elizabeth Fry Society staff</a>, who were unable to enter prisons to help imprisoned people register to vote in 2020. </p>
<p>Though <a href="https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/prisoners-say-they-were-denied-their-constitutional-right-to-vote/">Elections Canada</a> states prisoners cannot be denied an opportunity to vote, even for security reasons, some prisoners at the Atlantic Institution were <a href="https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/prisoners-say-they-were-denied-their-constitutional-right-to-vote/">prevented from voting in the 2019 federal election</a> due to an institutional lockdown. </p>
<h2>Recommendations</h2>
<p>The majority of people in prison <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/houses-of-hate-how-canadas-prison-system-is-broken/">do not need to be there</a>. During parts of the pandemic, the number of people imprisoned in Ontario decreased <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510015401&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.7&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2016+%2F+2017&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2020+%2F+2021&referencePeriods=20160101%2C20200101">from 8,113 to 6,405</a>.</p>
<p>But the number of imprisoned people in provincial jails has <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-inmate-advocates-warn-jail-populations-rising-again-in-some-provinces/">risen since</a>. In addition to decreasing the number of people imprisoned, we need to do better ahead of the fast approaching municipal elections in October. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/news/prisoner-voting-ban-unconstitutional-contradicts-nova-scotias-commitment-to-end-systemic-racism-expert-508603/">Barriers to voting in municipal elections</a> are even worse. <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/96m32">Ontario’s Municipal Elections Act</a> explicitly prohibits imprisoned people from voting. This act must be amended to allow imprisoned people to vote in October. </p>
<p>We call on respective governments to ensure that the relevant election agencies run the vote in prisons effectively. Elections Ontario must ensure imprisoned people are provided information on their candidates, registration assistance and facilitation by Elections Ontario employees on voting day. Voting is a right; everyone should have equitable access to it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Mussell receives funding from SSHRC. She is affiliated with the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Evans receives funding from SSHRC. She is affiliated with the Toronto Prisoners' Rights Project. </span></em></p>Elections Ontario must ensure imprisoned people are provided information on their candidates, registration assistance and facilitation by Elections Ontario employees on voting day.Linda Mussell, Postdoctoral fellow, Political Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaJessica Evans, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1732452021-12-26T20:28:27Z2021-12-26T20:28:27ZLike songs, the best graphs tell stories. Here are my 10 favourites from 2021<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436251/original/file-20211208-141213-1demhsp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">sheetmusicdirect</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“One of the first things you have to decide on with a musical is why should there be songs.”</p>
<p>The person speaking is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/players/offsite/index.html?videoId=1248069062358">Stephen Sondheim</a>, the writer of some of the best songs for musicals in the 20th century, who died in November aged 91.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You can put songs in any story, but what I think you have to look for is, why are songs necessary to this story? If it’s unnecessary, then the show generally turns out to be not very good.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’m no <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-27/stephen-sondheim-dies/100655760">Sondheim</a>, but as an editor I won’t put a graph into any story unless it is absolutely necessary to tell the story.</p>
<p>When I do, the picture can be worth at least the 800 words that accompany it.</p>
<p>So here are my 10 favourites from the business and economy stories I edited for The Conversation in 2021.</p>
<h2>Some of the best graphs remove doubt</h2>
<p>This graph, from the Bureau of Statistics, leaves no doubt about what happens to consumer spending when lockdowns end.</p>
<p>Released in November, with the national accounts, it uses <a href="https://theconversation.com/sure-the-national-accounts-show-gdp-going-backwards-but-look-at-whats-to-come-172950">bank account data</a> to show what happened to spending on clothes, furnishings, recreation, transport and restaurants and hotels. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Selected Victorian spending data</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434925/original/file-20211201-15-38vvlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434925/original/file-20211201-15-38vvlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434925/original/file-20211201-15-38vvlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434925/original/file-20211201-15-38vvlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434925/original/file-20211201-15-38vvlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434925/original/file-20211201-15-38vvlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434925/original/file-20211201-15-38vvlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434925/original/file-20211201-15-38vvlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aggregated bank data. Index for May 2020 = 100.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/impact-lockdowns-household-consumption-insights-alternative-data-sources">ABS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>While the effect is clear, and beautifully illustrated, it can be interpreted in two ways. One is that lockdowns are to be avoided because they suppress ordinary life. </p>
<p>The other is that Victoria’s long lockdown was caused by the failure of the NSW government to lockdown <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-02/policy-failures-caused-the-historical-decline-in-economic-growth/100664322">quickly enough</a> and hard enough as the Delta variant spread, meaning lockdowns are to be embraced, and quickly. </p>
<p>Another graph that removed doubt is this one showing what Australia’s July 2012 to July 2014 carbon price did to <a href="https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-marketing-is-getting-in-the-way-of-markets-that-could-get-us-to-net-zero-171602">greenhouse gas emissions</a>, excluding those related to land use and forestry that are subject to government directives.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Australian emissions excluding land use, land-use change and forestry</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431464/original/file-20211111-27-mha6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431464/original/file-20211111-27-mha6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431464/original/file-20211111-27-mha6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431464/original/file-20211111-27-mha6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431464/original/file-20211111-27-mha6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431464/original/file-20211111-27-mha6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431464/original/file-20211111-27-mha6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431464/original/file-20211111-27-mha6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per annum, updated quarterly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Climate-Cuts-Cover-Ups-and-Censorship.pdf">Climate Council, Department of Industry</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Whatever else is said about the carbon price, its effect on emissions is clear. </p>
<p>Also clear, and enormous when you look at it, is what our current system of adjusting JobSeeker only in line with the consumer price index will do to it compared to the age pension, which is adjusted in line with wages.</p>
<p>The projections in this graph derive from the mid-year intergenerational report which looks forward 40 years. </p>
<p>After 40 years – unless there’s an extra increase, and one wasn’t allowed for in the intergenerational report – JobSeeker will be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-covid-is-behind-us-australians-are-going-to-have-to-pay-more-tax-164707">mere fraction</a> of the pension.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>JobSeeker and age pension as projected in intergenerational report</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412051/original/file-20210720-15-jrjreu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412051/original/file-20210720-15-jrjreu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412051/original/file-20210720-15-jrjreu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412051/original/file-20210720-15-jrjreu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412051/original/file-20210720-15-jrjreu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412051/original/file-20210720-15-jrjreu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412051/original/file-20210720-15-jrjreu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412051/original/file-20210720-15-jrjreu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Payment for a single person, dollars per fortnight. JobSeeker, pension indexed to intergenerational report inflation projections.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Also shrinking, with unfortunate consequences for <a href="https://theconversation.com/paying-off-a-home-loan-used-to-be-easier-than-it-looked-its-now-harder-heres-why-161873">Australians with mortgages</a> and Australians trying to get them, has been wage growth.</p>
<p>The government has been forecasting a return to the 3-4% wage growth we once had in <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-the-budget-cash-splash-that-reaches-back-in-time-114188">every budget</a> since 2012, save for the last two.</p>
<p>Right now public sector wages growth, which used to lead private sector growth, is well below 2%. Private sector growth has started to climb, but it is well short of where it was.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Wage price index</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436258/original/file-20211208-25-idgl6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436258/original/file-20211208-25-idgl6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436258/original/file-20211208-25-idgl6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436258/original/file-20211208-25-idgl6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436258/original/file-20211208-25-idgl6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436258/original/file-20211208-25-idgl6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436258/original/file-20211208-25-idgl6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436258/original/file-20211208-25-idgl6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Annual seasonally adjusted growth in total hourly rates of pay excluding bonuses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/wage-price-index-australia/sep-2021">ABS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Up until the year 2000, buying a home cost between two and three times household after tax-income. </p>
<p>Then, after the headline rate of capital gains tax was halved and investors dived into the market, prices climbed to between three and four times income.</p>
<p>Six years ago they jumped again to between four and five times income, and in 2021 they climbed once again to more than <a href="https://theconversation.com/paying-off-a-home-loan-used-to-be-easier-than-it-looked-its-now-harder-heres-why-161873">six times</a> disposable income.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Home prices as proportion of household disposable income</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394394/original/file-20210411-15-8ofvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394394/original/file-20210411-15-8ofvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394394/original/file-20210411-15-8ofvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394394/original/file-20210411-15-8ofvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394394/original/file-20210411-15-8ofvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394394/original/file-20210411-15-8ofvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394394/original/file-20210411-15-8ofvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394394/original/file-20210411-15-8ofvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Household disposable income after tax, before the deduction of interest payments, including income of unincorporated enterprises.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rba.gov.au/chart-pack/pdf/chart-pack.pdf">Core Logic, ABS, RBA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>While low wage growth should make it harder to pay off a loan than it used to be, just at the moment ultra-low interest rates are making it <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-home-prices-soar-beyond-reach-we-have-a-government-inquiry-almost-designed-not-to-tell-us-why-168959">easier to service</a> mortgages than it has been in decades.</p>
<p>But what the Reserve Bank calls <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-home-prices-soar-beyond-reach-we-have-a-government-inquiry-almost-designed-not-to-tell-us-why-168959">housing accessibility</a> (to distinguish it from housing affordability) is much worse.</p>
<p>Astounding price growth and a decade of weak wages growth have pushed up the cost of an average first home deposit from 70% of income to more than 80%.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Average first home buyer deposit</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425847/original/file-20211012-26-1kbvg9c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425847/original/file-20211012-26-1kbvg9c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425847/original/file-20211012-26-1kbvg9c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425847/original/file-20211012-26-1kbvg9c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425847/original/file-20211012-26-1kbvg9c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425847/original/file-20211012-26-1kbvg9c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425847/original/file-20211012-26-1kbvg9c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425847/original/file-20211012-26-1kbvg9c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Owner-occupier; estimated as a share of average annual household disposable income using average first home buyer commitment size and assuming 20 per cent deposit. Seasonally adjusted and break-adjusted.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/submissions/housing-and-housing-finance/inquiry-into-housing-affordability-and-supply-in-australia/pdf/inquiry-into-housing-affordability-and-supply-in-australia.pdf">RBA, ABS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<h2>Other graphs surprise</h2>
<p>If we start building more houses, it stands to reason that we will get more houses.</p>
<p>That’ll doubtless be the case eventually, but if you are expecting it to happen any time soon, you will be disappointed.</p>
<p>In the space of a year, the number of Australian houses (not apartments) under construction has jumped from 56,060 to 88,445 — the most ever. </p>
<p>But bizarrely, as has been the case for half a century, the number of houses completed each quarter has <a href="https://theconversation.com/building-more-houses-quickly-is-harder-than-it-looks-australia-hasnt-done-it-in-decades-170223">barely moved</a>. </p>
<p>It’s as if homebuilding can’t scale up. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Houses under construction, houses completed, quarterly</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439030/original/file-20211227-117041-xttokw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439030/original/file-20211227-117041-xttokw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439030/original/file-20211227-117041-xttokw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439030/original/file-20211227-117041-xttokw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439030/original/file-20211227-117041-xttokw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439030/original/file-20211227-117041-xttokw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439030/original/file-20211227-117041-xttokw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439030/original/file-20211227-117041-xttokw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/building-and-construction/building-activity-australia/latest-release#data-download">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Another surprising graph shows the disconnect between crime and our desire to lock people up.</p>
<p>Nonviolent crime has plummeted. Between 2000 and 2020, armed robberies fell from 9,480 to 4,746, unarmed robberies fell from 13,850 to 4,666, and motor vehicle vehicle theft fell from 138,915 to 48,056.</p>
<p>Violent crime is falling too. The Productivity Commission believes homicide gives the best read on crime because almost all homicides are reported. </p>
<p>It found that while homicide has plummeted, imprisonment has <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-prison-time-for-less-crime-our-swelling-prisons-are-costing-us-dearly-170792">doubled</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Homicides and imprisonment per 100,000 Australians</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Number of prisoners per 100,000 population aged 18 years and over, number of homicides per 100,000 persons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/prison-dilemma">Productivity Commission</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Another surprise is that the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-great-resignation-is-a-myth-we-are-changing-jobs-less-than-ever-before-170784">great resignation</a>” – the jump in the proportion of workers quitting their jobs in the United States – hasn’t been seen here.</p>
<p>It seems to be a real phenomenon in the US, where low vaccination rates have made public-facing jobs dangerous, but not here where resignations have been falling for decades.</p>
<p>Australians seem increasingly resigned to staying in the jobs they are in.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Proportion of Australians who changed jobs in the past year</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435827/original/file-20211206-23-1h2uj0y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435827/original/file-20211206-23-1h2uj0y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435827/original/file-20211206-23-1h2uj0y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435827/original/file-20211206-23-1h2uj0y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435827/original/file-20211206-23-1h2uj0y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435827/original/file-20211206-23-1h2uj0y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435827/original/file-20211206-23-1h2uj0y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435827/original/file-20211206-23-1h2uj0y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/job-mobility/feb-2021">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<h2>The very best graphs tell an entire story</h2>
<p>When COVID took off in the first half of 2020 there was concern that many more people would die as a result of COVID than were recorded as COVID deaths.</p>
<p>Some of these “<a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-tracker">excess deaths</a>” would be COVID deaths that were not classified as COVID; some would be extra deaths caused by measures such as lockdowns; and some would be caused by crowded medical facilities turning away patients. </p>
<p>Worldwide, there have been <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid">millions</a> of excess deaths.</p>
<p>But not in Australia. In several months Australia’s excess deaths have been <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-tracker">negative</a>, with more deaths avoided than usual, in part because better health practices prevented deaths from the flu.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/you-cant-fix-it-if-you-cant-see-it-how-the-abs-became-our-secret-weapon-156637">You can't fix it if you can't see it: how the ABS became our secret weapon</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To track excess deaths the Bureau of Statistics has <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/provisional-mortality-statistics/jan-2020-aug-2021">graphed</a> the number of doctor certified deaths actually recorded each week against the number that would be expected for that week given the average over the past five years.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Weekly deaths vs 2015-2019 average</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439022/original/file-20211226-23072-1tsjblq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439022/original/file-20211226-23072-1tsjblq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439022/original/file-20211226-23072-1tsjblq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439022/original/file-20211226-23072-1tsjblq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439022/original/file-20211226-23072-1tsjblq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439022/original/file-20211226-23072-1tsjblq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439022/original/file-20211226-23072-1tsjblq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439022/original/file-20211226-23072-1tsjblq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Doctor certified deaths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/provisional-mortality-statistics/jan-2020-aug-2021">ABS Provisional Mortality Statistics</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>What is apparent is that in most weeks Australian deaths have been little more than would be expected given five-year averages, and in many weeks less.</p>
<p>If COVID has been killing people in ways we can’t see, the effect has been offset by the measures we have taken to combat COVID – saving lives in other ways we can’t see.</p>
<p>It’s an important finding, not at all foreseeable, and illustrated beautifully.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173245/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Martin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Conversation’s best graphs have removed doubt, surprised, and told entire stories.Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1707922021-10-28T19:12:12Z2021-10-28T19:12:12ZMore prison time for less crime, our swelling prisons are costing us dearly<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429227/original/file-20211028-13-13vnsbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Across Australia, the rate of imprisonment has climbed by about 25% in the past decade, over a time in which the rate of offending has dived 18%.</p>
<p>How can it be that we have less crime but more people in prison?</p>
<p>It’s the conundrum at the heart of a Productivity Commission research paper released this morning entitled <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/prison-dilemma">Australia’s Prison Dilemma</a>.</p>
<p>This graph presented in the report uses homicides as an indicator of trends in the incidence of violent crime because almost all homicides are reported to police.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Homicides and imprisonment per 100,000 Australians</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428992/original/file-20211028-27-1u1evql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Number of prisoners per 100 000 population aged 18 years and over, number of homicides per 100 000 persons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/prison-dilemma">Productivity Commission</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>The apparent fall in imprisonment during the pandemic may not last. It appears to be due to COVID-related decisions to release more unsentenced prisoners on bail, and slowdowns in court processing during lockdowns.</p>
<h2>Competing explanations</h2>
<p>One obvious – but incorrect – explanation for rising imprisonment at a time of falling crime might be that rising prison numbers are deterring crime. But the best evidence from Australia and overseas shows little if any such connection. </p>
<p>Another might be that “tough on bail” laws are leading to more people being held in prison awaiting trial. Even if some are later found not guilty or are not sentenced to prison, such a change could push up prison numbers while total crime is falling. </p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-5hmn5tZKEg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Productivity Commission.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Or it might be that “tough on crime” policies are making us send people to prison for crimes that previously would have led to a fine or suspended sentence. </p>
<p>Or we might have increased sentences – imposing more time for the same crime. </p>
<p>Our research finds the correct answer is “all of the above”, with the key driver across Australia being changes that are “tough on crime”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-prison-rates-are-up-but-crime-is-down-whats-going-on-170210">Australia's prison rates are up but crime is down. What's going on?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The biggest drivers of increased prisoner numbers across Australia are the chance that a person who is found guilty is imprisoned and the length of the term. </p>
<p>Both have been increased by new policies that mandate prison sentences for certain crimes, eliminate suspended sentences, and make it harder to get parole. </p>
<h2>Toughness is understandable</h2>
<p>The changes might be appropriate. Perpetrators of violent crime can destroy lives, and they make up almost 60% of the prison population. </p>
<p>However, a lot of prisoners have committed more minor offences with little risk of harm to others. Over one third of prisoners have sentences of less than six months and 60 per cent have been in prison before. </p>
<p>Many of the repeat prisoners are stuck on a treadmill of prison, minor crime, prison with untreated drug or alcohol problems, untreated mental illness, and few if any employment prospects. </p>
<p>Locking up low level offenders just to have them churn through prison again and again is costly.</p>
<h2>Toughness is expensive</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429045/original/file-20211028-23-ukf0jl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429045/original/file-20211028-23-ukf0jl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429045/original/file-20211028-23-ukf0jl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429045/original/file-20211028-23-ukf0jl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429045/original/file-20211028-23-ukf0jl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429045/original/file-20211028-23-ukf0jl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429045/original/file-20211028-23-ukf0jl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429045/original/file-20211028-23-ukf0jl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/prison-dilemma/prison-dilemma.pdf">Productivity Commission</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On average, we find imprisonment costs taxpayers about A$120,000 per prisoner per year.</p>
<p>That’s about $5.2 billion in total. </p>
<p>We find that if Australia’s imprisonment rate had remained steady, rather than climbing for twenty years, the saving in prison costs would approach $13.5 billion.</p>
<p>And we find that if we could focus on alternatives for just the 1% of prisoners who create the least risk to society we would save about $45 million per year.</p>
<p>Australia already uses alternatives.</p>
<p>Among them are home detention with electronic monitoring, and diversion programs where offenders receive community-based treatment for their addiction or illness. </p>
<h2>The alternatives are cheap</h2>
<p>These alternatives save money. Community corrections programs cost one-tenth of prison terms. </p>
<p>They can also lead to better outcomes, for both the offender and for society, by getting prisoners off the prison-crime-prison treadmill. </p>
<p>They do heighten some risks, but a careful choice of the offenders offered the alternatives along with strong supervision using modern technology, and the knowledge that prison awaits those for whom the alternatives don’t work means the risks can be kept small.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429225/original/file-20211028-13-1p5u0rk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429225/original/file-20211028-13-1p5u0rk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429225/original/file-20211028-13-1p5u0rk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429225/original/file-20211028-13-1p5u0rk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429225/original/file-20211028-13-1p5u0rk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429225/original/file-20211028-13-1p5u0rk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429225/original/file-20211028-13-1p5u0rk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429225/original/file-20211028-13-1p5u0rk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Productivity Commission.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://kapara.rdbk.com.au/landers/ff30be.html">Click here to register.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Adopting these alternatives requires evidence about what works and buy-in. </p>
<p>The existing evidence base is poor. Our <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/prison-dilemma">report</a> highlights a range of evidence-based alternatives from here and overseas, but many are never evaluated.</p>
<p>The alternatives need to be fair and just – not only to the offenders but also to the victims. But for low-level offenders caught on a prison-crime-prison treadmill, “tough on crime” means “tough on the taxpayer”. </p>
<p>We ought to be able to do better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen King is a Commissioner with the Australian Productivity Commission. </span></em></p>A new Productivity Commission report finds prisoners cost Australian taxpayers more than $5 billion per year. The numbers are climbing while offences are falling.Stephen King, Adjunct professor, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1702102021-10-22T00:18:11Z2021-10-22T00:18:11ZAustralia’s prison rates are up but crime is down. What’s going on?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427716/original/file-20211021-15-keas69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imprisonment rates in Australia are currently the highest they have been in a century, despite a significant fall in crime, and the Productivity Commission is <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/news-media/articles/imprisonment">stepping in</a> to determine why.</p>
<p>The commission is due to release research around imprisonment rates in coming weeks, suggesting this key component of the criminal justice system is not providing value for money. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/incarceration-nation-exposes-the-racist-foundations-of-policing-and-imprisonment-in-australia-but-at-what-cost-165951">Incarceration Nation exposes the racist foundations of policing and imprisonment in Australia, but at what cost?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It also recognises the efficiency of our prisons is important. Apart from the expense involved, they are supposed to provide justice and keep our community safe. And yet for a substantial part of the prison population, there is a “prison-crime-prison” revolving door. </p>
<p>Let’s look at the figures. </p>
<h2>It’s not a crime wave</h2>
<p>The rate of offending in Australia fell by 18% in the decade to 2020. Over the same period, the imprisonment rate rose by 25%. There are now more than 40,000 Australians in prison. Put simply, crime is down, but more and more people are being incarcerated. </p>
<p>As commissioner Stephen King <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/news-media/news/imprisonment">explains</a>, the rise in incarceration rates over the past 20 years had come principally as a result of “tough on crime” government policies. This has cost taxpayers about $13.5 billion more than if the imprisonment rate had remained steady.</p>
<p>He notes Australia is “out of line” with other developed countries in this respect. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[United Nations] data shows the growth in our imprisonment rates since 2003 was third highest in the OECD, exceeded only by Turkey and Colombia […] These numbers wrongly suggest some sort of Australian ‘crime wave’.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>So why is crime falling?</h2>
<p>One could be forgiven for assuming crime is falling now precisely because more people are being incarcerated. Is there perhaps a causal link? </p>
<p>There are two clear reasons why this is not the case: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>There are many other reasons why crime rates can fall. Those studying <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/18613/chapter/1">the long-term drop</a> in crime in western democracies since the mid-1990s say these include, economic prosperity, good policing strategies, demographics (in 1995, the last of the baby boomers turned 35, the age at which criminality drops away significantly), welfare support, and cheaper, better <a href="https://crimesciencejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40163-015-0028-3">security devices</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>There is no consistent relationship between crime rates and imprisonment rates. Indeed, there have been crime drops in jurisdictions where the rate of imprisonment has remained the same or declined. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Let’s look more closely at this. </p>
<h2>The Queensland example</h2>
<p>Queensland provides a good case study. From 2003 to 2012, the state’s <a href="https://qpc.blob.core.windows.net/wordpress/2020/01/SUMMARY-REPORT-Imprisonment-.pdf">imprisonment rate fell</a> at the same time as violent and property crime rates were in decline. </p>
<p>Other countries, such as Finland, enjoy a <a href="https://www.numbeo.com/crime/country_result.jsp?country=Finland">very low crime rate</a> and a <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/finland">very low imprisonment rate</a> at the same time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Prisoners at Lotus Glen Correctional Centre in northern Queensland" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queensland shows crime and jail rates can drop at the same time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Human Rights Watch/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Conversely, <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-decade-had-the-most-crime.html">until the mid-1990s</a>, the United States had a very high crime rate and continues to have <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/u-s-prison-population-trends-massive-buildup-and-modest-decline/">a very high imprisonment rate</a>. But when New York, New Jersey and California reduced their prison populations by some 25% in recent years, their crime rates generally <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/the-facts/#map">declined</a> at a faster pace than the national average.</p>
<p>True, longer sentences may reduce the rates of some crimes simply by shutting perpetrators out of the crime market for a while. But this can be subject to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2012.02522.x">diminishing returns</a>. That is, money spent on extra prison beds will eventually exceed any savings that may have been made by having less crime. </p>
<h2>Jail is not the only option</h2>
<p>The Productivity Commission says the question facing policymakers now is whether our “current prison policy is providing the best value outcomes for Australia”. If it is not, what are the alternatives? </p>
<p>The commission notes there are several other options for low-risk offenders, such as home detention, especially if they are linked to mental health and drug and alcohol services. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-maximum-security-prison-offers-a-pathway-to-academic-excellence-and-a-phd-169625">How a maximum security prison offers a pathway to academic excellence and a PhD</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is also the argument put forward by theorists such as criminologist <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362480697001002001">Elliott Currie</a> that a secure community is built on equality of opportunity and the development of strong social capital, which simply means creating more resilient and more vibrant communities <a href="https://www.justicereforminitiative.org.au/media_release_productivity_commission_should_expand_its_scope_for_smarter_criminal_justice_and_stronger_communities">that leave no-one behind</a>. This would include building and embedding culturally-safe programs that are led by First Nations communities.</p>
<p>Just imagine what could have been achieved if $13.5 billion had been spent on these initiatives thereby limiting the chances that people will turn to crime, or continue to offend, rather than on custodial services.</p>
<h2>Spending justice dollars differently</h2>
<p>In summary, prison sentences, necessary as some may be, <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814717196/the-punishment-imperative/">are a blunt</a> (and largely counter-productive) instrument in the fight against crime.</p>
<p>It would be far better if we applied our minds to finding more efficient ways to spend our criminal justice dollars. As criminal justice scholar Bronwyn Naylor <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-is-in-you-cant-link-imprisonment-to-crime-rates-40074">has written</a>, imprisonment is a political choice. It’s worth repeating her call to invest “much more in schools, families and communities, and much less in prisons”.</p>
<p>Wise words indeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170210/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rick Sarre is President of the SA Council for Civil Liberties and a South Australian patron of the Justice Reform Initiative</span></em></p>The Productivity Commission is examining Australia’s incarceration rates, arguing our jails are not providing value for money.Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1605242021-05-14T04:57:10Z2021-05-14T04:57:10ZArt by Indigenous prisoners can forge links with culture and a future away from crime<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400488/original/file-20210513-18-1fr2xfe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C14%2C4902%2C2325&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Torch artist and Barkindji man Trevor Mitchell at work on a painting. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://thetorch.org.au/exhibitions/7844456/">The Torch</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Featuring over 350 artworks created by more than 320 artists, <a href="https://thetorch.org.au/">The Torch</a>’s annual exhibition, <a href="https://thetorch.org.au/exhibitions/7844456/">Confined 12</a>, is its largest to date. All of the artists in the Victorian not-for-profit organisation’s show are Indigenous and either in prison or recently released. </p>
<p>The exhibition and the program that precedes it allows them to be seen not as “criminals” or “offenders”, but as people of value, proud Indigenous men and women, citizens and artists. </p>
<p>Bringing about this <a href="https://study.sagepub.com/system/files/Maruna%2C_Shadd_-_Redemption_Scripts_and_Desistance.pdf">identity change</a> is critical for exiting the cycle of crime and prison. It’s a difficult and challenging process, but people willing to engage with the art produced can make a big difference. </p>
<h2>Teaching art inside</h2>
<p>In 2011, artist and The Torch CEO, Kent Morris, started visiting Indigenous men and women in the Victorian prison system to teach art. </p>
<p>He found students who felt disconnected from family, country and culture. They wanted to know just as much about how to paint as who they were and where they were from. </p>
<p>Since then, the organisation has been supporting Indigenous people in Victoria’s prison system to learn about and (re)connect with their cultural heritage, develop their artistic skills and practice, and learn about the arts industry. </p>
<p>Participants are then able to exhibit and sell their artwork through The Torch’s <a href="https://thetorch.org.au/shop-2/">online shop</a> and the annual <a href="https://thetorch.org.au/exhibition/confined-12/">Confined</a>, <a href="https://thetorch.org.au/exhibition/banj-banj-nawnta/">and other</a>, exhibitions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400491/original/file-20210513-18-stxi1x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Indigenous artwork" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400491/original/file-20210513-18-stxi1x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400491/original/file-20210513-18-stxi1x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400491/original/file-20210513-18-stxi1x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400491/original/file-20210513-18-stxi1x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400491/original/file-20210513-18-stxi1x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400491/original/file-20210513-18-stxi1x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400491/original/file-20210513-18-stxi1x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zac (Wadawurrung peoples) Overseeing Bunjil 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CNbQXv0BwC0/">The Torch/Instagram</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his classic <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv14164hw">1958 ethnographic study</a> of New Jersey State Prison, Gresham M. Sykes outlined a number of fundamental deprivations that feature in daily prison life which he termed the “pains of imprisonment”. They include the loss of liberty, autonomy and security. </p>
<p>Art has the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/22/not-everyones-an-artist-but-all-prisoners-would-benefit-from-practising-art">power to buffer</a> the damaging psychological impacts of prison, which Sykes pointed out, should be minimised or eliminated if efforts at rehabilitation are to be effective. Art-making and viewing is good for emotional regulation, psychological <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238602084_A_Place_for_Art_in_Prison_Art_as_A_Tool_for_Rehabilitation_and_Management">health and well-being</a>.</p>
<p>Similar art programs for people in prison include the annual <a href="https://fremantleprison.com.au/whats-on/insider-art/">Insider Art</a> exhibition in WA, <a href="https://www.koestlerarts.org.uk/">Koestler Arts</a> in the UK and the <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/pcap">University of Michigan Creative Arts Project</a>. But these programs and organisations don’t leverage the power of art to maximise individual and community change like The Torch and there are no other programs specifically for Indigenous artists in prison or recently released.</p>
<p>The Torch produces and distributes texts and images to educate participants about Indigenous nations, languages, country, stories, technologies and aesthetic traditions. </p>
<p>One artist involved in The Torch exhibition <a href="https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/mp/files/resources/files/evaluation-torch-report16mar2019final1.pdf">described</a> the powerful effect art practice had on them: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I do my art it’s like a mood stabiliser. It helps me stay focused and I feel more settled. I’d rather do my art than see a counsellor.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399751/original/file-20210510-18-zuszfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399751/original/file-20210510-18-zuszfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399751/original/file-20210510-18-zuszfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399751/original/file-20210510-18-zuszfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399751/original/file-20210510-18-zuszfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399751/original/file-20210510-18-zuszfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399751/original/file-20210510-18-zuszfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Confined 10. Photo by James Henry.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/life-sentences-what-creative-writing-by-prisoners-tells-us-about-the-inside-130783">Life sentences – what creative writing by prisoners tells us about the inside</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A different path</h2>
<p>Reducing the number of people returning to prison after release is one of Corrections Victoria’s <a href="https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/corrections-victoria">strategic priorities</a>. Efforts to reduce reoffending can include clinical treatment programs (for instance to <a href="https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/release/transitional-programs">treat mental health conditions or addiction</a>) alongside practical support to find housing, welfare support and if possible, employment after release. </p>
<p>Long-term abstinence from criminal behaviour, called “desistance”, can be a difficult, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1748895816634812">painful</a> and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/57/5/1041/2624018?redirectedFrom=fulltext">fragile</a> process. After the social rejection of prison, it involves successful community integration, self and social acceptance. </p>
<p>It can also involve becoming someone different, someone new. As criminologist Fergus McNeil <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.2044-8333.2011.02039.x?casa_token=XpILm0wKAqMAAAAA%3AVLmxkxsiLwIY2C4xbGNLeNce0GSg_D7XaJXOOYeOv_N5X5a-HgRz5i_MNExnmnCvZiAC9KTvDaHGBnl5VA">has pointed out</a>, “people do not simply desist, they desist into something”. </p>
<p>Artist Chris Austin (Gunditjmara) explains how the program helped him: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the past I was a crook, you know, a jail bird but now I am an artist. My daughter is so very proud of that. I never used to think of myself that way. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/COY7OCVjOqg","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Audience participation</h2>
<p>By embracing participants as artists rather than ex-offenders, The Torch provides an avenue to change. This part of the process involves audience participation — a partnership with the wider community. </p>
<p>The annual exhibitions allow others to celebrate and accept the artists whose work is on show. Selling a work of art provides validation and a source of income. Artist <a href="https://thetorch.org.au/artists/0037f000018z3qjqac/">Flick Chafer-Smith</a> (Ngarrindjeri) says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I love the idea that someone has seen my painting and loved what I’ve done and paid their money, and have it on display in their home. It gives me so much pride.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this way, identity is co-created. Participants who exhibit and sell their work with The Torch receive 100% of the sale price. This income can foster independence and lessen reliance on welfare, family and friends. In 2020, sales from The Torch’s exhibitions topped more than <a href="https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/mp/files/resources/files/evaluation-torch-report16mar2019final1.pdf">$250,000</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://thetorch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/EVALUATION_Torch-Report16Mar2019FINAL1.pdf">The Torch reports</a> that of 66 participants in 2017–18 only 11% returned to prison. This is in stark comparison to the <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/statistics/sentencing-trends/released-prisoners-returning-to-prison">44.2% of Victorian prisoners</a> who returned to prison within two years of release (the rate of recidivism <a href="https://www.aboriginaljustice.vic.gov.au/the-agreement/aboriginal-over-representation-in-the-justice-system/aboriginal-cohorts-under-justice">rises to 53.4%</a> for Victorian Indigenous prisoners).</p>
<p>Indigenous Australians are incarcerated <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-qanda-are-indigenous-australians-the-most-incarcerated-people-on-earth-78528">at the highest rate</a> of any people in the world. The art exhibited by The Torch — and the people who engage with it as creators and viewers — can transform lives and light a new way forward. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-criminals-or-passive-victims-media-need-to-reframe-their-representation-of-aboriginal-deaths-in-custody-158561">Not criminals or passive victims: media need to reframe their representation of Aboriginal deaths in custody</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The Torch’s <a href="https://thetorch.org.au/exhibitions/7844456/">Confined 12</a> exhibition is on from 13 May until 6 June at Glen Eira City Council Gallery.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160524/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Ryder does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With 350 artworks created by 320 Indigenous artists who are in or recently released from prison, The Torch is making a difference to how people are seen and how they see themselves.Jeremy Ryder, Research Assistant, Law and Criminal Justice Tutor, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1312952020-02-23T19:57:55Z2020-02-23T19:57:55ZPeople with cognitive disability shouldn’t be in prison because they’re ‘unfit to plead’. There are alternatives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315129/original/file-20200212-61981-1s2v17a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C24%2C5387%2C3583&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-prison-hands-behind-hold-steel-1115351336">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2018, the Victorian Ombudsman, Deborah Glass, delivered a <a href="https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/getattachment/8dd8de6a-76dc-4018-8a63-e8b98a5fb4a1/publications/parliamentary-reports/investigation-into-the-imprisonment-of-a-woman-fou.aspx">report</a> about “the saddest case” she had ever seen. </p>
<p>A 39-year-old woman with a developmental disorder had been locked in her prison cell for up to 23 hours a day for more than 18 months. The woman had been charged with breaching an intervention order (a charge which was later dropped) and resisting arrest. </p>
<p>The Ombudsman commented this was not an isolated incident.
Last year, <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/man-suffering-from-brain-injury-locked-in-jail-with-no-end-in-sight-20191115-p53ayi.html">The Age</a> reported a 49-year-old wheelchair user with an acquired brain injury had spent three years in prison with no end date in sight after being charged with assault.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-aboriginal-women-with-disabilities-are-set-on-a-path-into-the-criminal-justice-system-48167">How Aboriginal women with disabilities are set on a path into the criminal justice system</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>What unites the circumstances of these two people with disabilities is both had been found “unfit to plead”. This finding may lead to indefinite detention and/or supervision despite no finding of guilt. </p>
<p>But there are viable alternatives. Criminal justice liaison officers, disability support workers and communication assistants can help people with cognitive disability understand the criminal process so they can choose to plead guilty or not guilty.</p>
<h2>What are ‘unfitness to plead’ laws?</h2>
<p>Unfitness to plead laws are based on the idea people accused of crimes should not be put on trial if they can’t understand the legal process and the charges against them. The main aim is to avoid unfair trials.</p>
<p>Once charged with a crime, they may not be released or left unsupervised because of concerns about community protection, yet they can’t be convicted or acquitted because holding a trial is considered unfair.</p>
<p>Unfitness to plead rulings mean people with conditions that affect their ability to learn, process, communicate and remember information can end up in detention indefinitely. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unfit-to-plead-why-does-the-law-jail-those-with-intellectual-disabilities-indefinitely-15504">'Unfit to plead': why does the law jail those with intellectual disabilities indefinitely?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>There are too many people with cognitive disability in prison</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/unfit-to-plead-why-does-the-law-jail-those-with-intellectual-disabilities-indefinitely-15504">previous article</a>, I outlined how people with cognitive disability form a disproportionately large cohort of prisoners. </p>
<p>A 2011 report for the Victorian Department of Justice <a href="https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/publications-manuals-and-statistics/acquired-brain-injury-in-the-victorian-prison-system">estimated</a> 42% of male prisoners and 33% of female prisoners in Victoria had an acquired brain injury, compared to about 2% of the general population.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315138/original/file-20200213-41665-zok7dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315138/original/file-20200213-41665-zok7dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315138/original/file-20200213-41665-zok7dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315138/original/file-20200213-41665-zok7dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315138/original/file-20200213-41665-zok7dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315138/original/file-20200213-41665-zok7dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315138/original/file-20200213-41665-zok7dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indefinite detention for people with cognitive disability and/or mental illnesses can worsen existing health conditions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-woman-desperate-catch-iron-prisonprisoner-1151410031">Shuttershock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An infringement on their liberty</h2>
<p>The Victorian Law Reform Commission <a href="https://www.lawreform.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/Review_of_the_Crimes_Mental_Impairment_and_Unfitness_to_be_Tried_Act_0.pdf">estimated</a> findings of unfit to plead or not guilty on the grounds of mental impairment make up less than 1% of the total cases that result in a sentence or supervision order in the higher courts.</p>
<p>While those affected by unfitness to plead laws may form a small subset of prisoners with cognitive disability and/or mental illness, data isn’t <a href="https://www.lawreform.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/Review_of_the_Crimes_Mental_Impairment_and_Unfitness_to_be_Tried_Act_0.pdf">kept</a> in Victoria on how often fitness to plead issues are raised in relation to summary offences (less serious offences). There’s also no national database to make comparisons about unfitness to plead cases across states and territories.</p>
<p>Extensive data indicates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disabilities face added disadvantage in the criminal justice system. One 2012 report found <a href="http://www.disabilityjustice.edu.au/1008">11 of 33 people</a> deemed unfit to plead or “unsound of mind” in Western Australia were Indigenous. Further, all nine men on indefinite supervision orders in the Northern Territory found unfit to plead in 2012 were Indigenous.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/supporting-not-imprisoning-aboriginal-people-with-disabilities-could-save-millions-48165">Supporting, not imprisoning, Aboriginal people with disabilities could save millions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Efforts to provide support</h2>
<p>In addition to law reforms, several initiatives are under way to support people who may be found unfit to plead navigate the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/equality-capacity-and-disability-in-commonwealth-laws-alrc-report-124/">Australian Law Reform Commission</a> recommended communication assistants and support people for them.</p>
<p>In October 2019, the Council of Australian Governments Disability Reform Council <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/disability-and-carers-programs-services-government-international-disability-reform-council/communique-9-october-2019">agreed</a> the National Disability Insurance Agency should introduce justice liaison officers to support NDIS participants in youth and adult justice systems. </p>
<p>The NDIS is still developing the scheme, but it has the potential to help people with cognitive disability accused of a crime understand the trial process and in turn avoid findings of unfitness to plead.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315140/original/file-20200213-41665-1vcdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315140/original/file-20200213-41665-1vcdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315140/original/file-20200213-41665-1vcdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315140/original/file-20200213-41665-1vcdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315140/original/file-20200213-41665-1vcdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315140/original/file-20200213-41665-1vcdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315140/original/file-20200213-41665-1vcdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The disability royal commission will look into unfit to plead laws.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/barbed-wire-fence-attached-around-prison-356278409">Shuttershock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are several <a href="https://supportingjustice.net/">resources</a> to support people with acquired brain injury and their supporters navigate the criminal justice system. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I developed a <a href="https://socialequity.unimelb.edu.au/projects/unfitness-to-plead">support program</a> with three community legal centres in the Northern Territory, New South Wales and Victoria in 2017 which participants <a href="https://socialequity.unimelb.edu.au/news/latest/unfitness-to-plead-final-report-launched">evaluated highly</a>. This model could be <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-law-in-context/article/economic-case-for-improving-legal-outcomes-for-accused-persons-with-cognitive-disability-an-australian-study/E00FF107275206F4307ADC4F46C0A38C">cost-effective</a>.</p>
<h2>The disability royal commission</h2>
<p>The disability royal commission has released an <a href="https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/Pages/default.aspx#criminal-justice-system-issues-paper">issues paper</a> on criminal justice and people with disabilities which reflects on a number of issues raised in this article. </p>
<p>The commission is seeking submissions on what supports can help keep people with disabilities out of the criminal justice system or stay safe within the system.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/caring-for-ex-prisoners-under-the-ndis-would-save-money-and-lives-31974">Caring for ex-prisoners under the NDIS would save money and lives</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131295/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bernadette McSherry receives funding from the Australian Research Council. The Unfitness to Plead project was funded by a National Disability Research and Development Grant. </span></em></p>Programs designed to enhance legal access for people with cognitive disabilities accused of a crime are more humane and could be more cost effective than long-term detention.Bernadette McSherry, Foundation Director, Melbourne Social Equity Institute, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/939422018-04-06T05:48:14Z2018-04-06T05:48:14ZNew data tool scores Australia and other countries on their human rights performance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212576/original/file-20180329-189827-17jfcp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it remains difficult to monitor governments' performance because there are no comprehensive human rights measures. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year, the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a> will mark its 70th anniversary, but despite progress in some areas, it remains difficult to measure or compare governments’ performance. We have yet to develop comprehensive human rights measures that are accepted by researchers, policymakers and advocates alike. </p>
<p>With this in mind, <a href="https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/about-hrmi/the-team/">my colleagues and I</a> have started the <a href="https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/">Human Rights Measurement Initiative</a> (HRMI), the first global project to develop a comprehensive suite of metrics covering international human rights. </p>
<p>We have now released our beta dataset and data visualisation tools, publishing 12 metrics that cover five economic and social rights and seven civil and political rights.</p>
<h2>Lack of human rights data</h2>
<p>People often assume the UN already produces comprehensive data on nations’ human rights performance, but it does not, and likely never will. The members of the UN are governments, and governments are the very actors that are obligated by international human rights law. It would be naïve to hope for governments to effectively monitor and measure their own performance without political bias. There has to be a role for non-state measurement.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-human-rights-council-election-comes-with-a-challenge-to-improve-its-domestic-record-80953">Australia's Human Rights Council election comes with a challenge to improve its domestic record</a>
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<p>We hope that the data and visualisations provided by HRMI will empower practitioners, advocates, researchers, journalists and others to speak clearly about human rights outcomes worldwide and hold governments accountable when they fail to meet their obligations under international law.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212065/original/file-20180326-188622-1ba0rwn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212065/original/file-20180326-188622-1ba0rwn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212065/original/file-20180326-188622-1ba0rwn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212065/original/file-20180326-188622-1ba0rwn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212065/original/file-20180326-188622-1ba0rwn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212065/original/file-20180326-188622-1ba0rwn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212065/original/file-20180326-188622-1ba0rwn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">These are the 12 human rights measured by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) project during its pilot stage. The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines 30 human rights.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/methodology/overview/">Human Rights Measurement Initiative</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>The HRMI pilot</h2>
<p>At HRMI, <a href="https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/methodology/measuring-economic-social-rights/">alongside our existing methodology for economic and social rights</a>, we are developing a new way of measuring civil and political human rights. In our pilot, we sent an expert survey directly to human rights practitioners who are actively monitoring each country’s human rights situation. </p>
<p>That survey asked respondents about their country’s performance on the rights to assembly and association, opinion and expression, political participation, freedom from torture, freedom from disappearance, freedom from execution, and freedom from arbitrary or political arrest and imprisonment.</p>
<p>Based on those survey responses, we develop data on the overall level of respect for each of the rights. These data are calculated using a statistical method that ensures responses are comparable across experts and countries, and with an uncertainty band to provide transparency about how confident we are in each country’s placement. We also provide information on who our respondents believed were especially at risk for each type of human rights violation. </p>
<h2>Human rights in Australia</h2>
<p>One way to visualise data on our website is to look at a country’s performance across all 12 human rights for which we have released data at this time. For example, the graph below shows Australia’s performance across all HRMI metrics.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212306/original/file-20180327-109204-186w650.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212306/original/file-20180327-109204-186w650.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212306/original/file-20180327-109204-186w650.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212306/original/file-20180327-109204-186w650.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212306/original/file-20180327-109204-186w650.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212306/original/file-20180327-109204-186w650.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212306/original/file-20180327-109204-186w650.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Human rights performance in Australia. Data necessary to calculate a metric for the right to housing at a high-income OECD assessment standard is currently unavailable for Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>As shown here, Australia performs quite well on some indicators, but quite poorly on others. Looking at civil and political rights (in blue), Australia demonstrates high respect for the right to be free from execution, but does much worse on the rights to be free from torture and arbitrary arrest. </p>
<p>Our respondents often attributed this poor performance on torture and imprisonment to the treatment of refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers, as well as Indigenous peoples, by the Australian government. </p>
<p>Looking across the economic and social rights (in green), Australia shows a range of performance, doing quite well on the right to food, but performing far worse on the right to work. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-things-australia-can-do-to-be-a-human-rights-hero-88238">Ten things Australia can do to be a human rights hero</a>
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<h2>Freedom from torture across countries</h2>
<p>Another way to visualise our data is to look at respect for a single right across several countries. The graph below shows, for example, overall government respect for the right to be free from torture and ill treatment in all 13 of HRMI’s pilot countries.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212298/original/file-20180327-109185-157exmt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212298/original/file-20180327-109185-157exmt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212298/original/file-20180327-109185-157exmt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=186&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212298/original/file-20180327-109185-157exmt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=186&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212298/original/file-20180327-109185-157exmt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=186&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212298/original/file-20180327-109185-157exmt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212298/original/file-20180327-109185-157exmt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212298/original/file-20180327-109185-157exmt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Government respect for the right to be free from torture, January to June 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI)</span></span>
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<p>Here, the middle of each blue bar (marked by the small white lines) represents the average estimated level of respect for freedom from torture, while the length of the blue bars demonstrate our certainty in our estimates. For instance, we are much more certain regarding Mexico’s (MEX) low score than Brazil’s (BRA) higher score. Due to this uncertainty and the resulting overlap between the bars, there is only about a 92% chance that Brazil’s score is better than Mexico’s.</p>
<p>In addition to being able to say that torture is probably more prevalent in Mexico than in Brazil, and how certain we are in that comparison, we can also compare the groups of people that our respondents said were at greatest risk of torture. This information is summarised in the two word clouds below; larger words indicate that that group was selected by more survey respondents as being at risk.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212608/original/file-20180329-189807-sycwmv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212608/original/file-20180329-189807-sycwmv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212608/original/file-20180329-189807-sycwmv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212608/original/file-20180329-189807-sycwmv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212608/original/file-20180329-189807-sycwmv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212608/original/file-20180329-189807-sycwmv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212608/original/file-20180329-189807-sycwmv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">These word clouds show, on the left, the attributes that place a person at risk of torture in Brazil, and on the right, attributes that place one at risk for torture in Mexico, January to June 2017, respectively.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>There are both similarities and differences between the groups that were at highest risk in Brazil and Mexico. Based on the <a href="https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Qualitative-responses-HRMI-2017-pilot.pdf">survey responses our human rights experts in Brazil gave us</a>, we know that black people, those who live in favelas or quilombolas, those who live in rural or remote areas, landless rural workers, and prison inmates are largely the groups referred to by the terms “race,” “low social or economic status,” or “detainees or suspected criminals”. </p>
<p>On the other hand, in Mexico, imprisoned women and those suspected of involvement with organised crime are the detainees or suspected criminals that our respondents stated were at high risk of torture. Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers travelling through Mexico on the way to the United States are also at risk.</p>
<p>There is much more to be learned from <a href="https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/">the visualisations and data on our website</a>. After you have had the opportunity to explore, we would love to hear your feedback <a href="https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/about-hrmi/contact-hrmi/">here</a> about any aspect of our work so far. We are just getting started, and we thrive on collaboration with the wider human rights community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93942/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>HRMI has received funding from the Open Society Foundations and the Namaste Foundation, among others. For more information, see: <a href="https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/get-involved/support/">https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/get-involved/support/</a>.</span></em></p>Despite the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it remains difficult to measure governments’ performance. A new data tool gives countries a scorecard on how well, or badly, they are doing.K. Chad Clay, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, University of GeorgiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/922682018-02-23T02:00:39Z2018-02-23T02:00:39ZNew evidence suggests we may need to rethink policies aimed at poverty<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207444/original/file-20180222-152348-1f4ort1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fewer people who were homeless or at risk of being homeless exited poverty than in the general population</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Poverty is <a href="http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2437426/HILDA-SR-med-res.pdf">often perceived</a> as an ongoing problem for only a very small number of people, and for most households it is a temporary phase that does not last long.</p>
<p>But less than 15% of the most disadvantaged people in Australia exit poverty from one year to the next, according to data from the <a href="http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/journeys-home">Journeys Home survey</a>, run by the Melbourne Institute. </p>
<p>The view that poverty is largely a transitional experience has influenced the design, implementation and even the evaluation of welfare policy in Australia. If poverty is a temporary phenomenon, then support can take the form of an insurance scheme to supplement income during the limited time spent in poverty. </p>
<p>However, our research suggests that income poverty is persistent for a small group of Australians and is combined with other forms of disadvantage. Supporting these people in finding a pathway out of poverty requires deeper interventions, including targeted health, education and social policies.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-podcast-brian-howe-on-revisiting-henderson-poverty-and-basic-income-91677">Politics podcast: Brian Howe on revisiting Henderson, poverty and basic income</a>
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<p>Most of the evidence we have on the persistence of poverty is based on long-term surveys designed to be representative of the entire population. Although these surveys offer broad coverage of the population, such surveys are typically limited in their ability to capture the most disadvantaged groups because they constitute only a small part of the general population. </p>
<p>This makes it difficult to produce reliable estimates of the extent of poverty among extremely disadvantaged households. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/journeys-home">Journeys Home survey</a> followed nearly 1,700 welfare recipients from across the country who were identified by Centrelink as homeless or at high risk of experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. </p>
<p>These are the types of people who have always been particularly difficult to survey, let alone follow through time. As a result, they are likely to be under-represented in general surveys used to study poverty. The Journeys Homes project allows a more precise examination of the prevalence and persistence of poverty among those groups. </p>
<p>We found that significantly fewer people exit poverty every year than the equivalent estimate based on data from the <a href="http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/hilda">Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia</a> (HILDA). This is a general population survey that has followed a sample of 17,000 Australians since 2001. </p>
<p><a href="http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2437426/HILDA-SR-med-res.pdf">Research</a> based on HILDA shows that more than 2 million Australians were below the poverty line in 2015. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whos-on-the-outer-uncovering-povertys-many-faces-44574">Who's on the outer? Uncovering poverty's many faces</a>
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<p>Our study used a poverty line equal to 60% of the median household income, which is a <a href="http://www.poverty.ac.uk/definitions-poverty/income-threshold-approach">widely used</a> measure in high-income countries. To get an idea, the poverty line in Australia for a single person in 2014 sat at A$517 per week. The threshold for a couple was A$776. </p>
<p>The gap between HILDA and Journeys Home in estimating poverty persists even when we change the level of the poverty line. </p>
<p>Journeys Home’s participants are not only more disadvantaged than the poor in HILDA, but much more likely to report several forms of disadvantage. For example, the poor in HILDA have higher education levels and are, on average, more likely to be employed than those interviewed in Journeys Home. </p>
<p>Rates of imprisonment and mental illness are also higher in Journeys Home than in HILDA. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-support-universal-health-care-so-why-not-a-universal-basic-income-91572">Australians support universal health care, so why not a universal basic income?</a>
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<p>The HILDA results show that most Australians who fall below the poverty line do so for a relatively short time, which is good news. However, it is also clear that among chronically disadvantaged people the chances of poverty becoming an enduring feature of life are much higher than previously thought. </p>
<p>If people are trapped below the poverty line for a long time, the sorts of interventions needed to get them out of poverty are likely to be quite different than when the experience of poverty is transitory. </p>
<p>The evidence suggests those who get stuck below the poverty line also have numerous disadvantages, so perhaps we need to rethink interventions designed to assist the most vulnerable members of the community. </p>
<p>A common thread dating back to the 1990s has been to frame long-term reliance on welfare as welfare dependency. Australia’s welfare system might do better if it avoided stigmatising those who get “stuck” and recognised the systemic and structural barriers that make leaving poverty particularly difficult for some households. </p>
<p>For these households, much deeper forms of assistance are needed to help them make a permanent transition out of poverty.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92268/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicolas Herault works for the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. The Melbourne Institute manages the Journeys Home survey as well as the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francisco Azpitarte is the Ronald Henderson Fellow, a joint position between the University of Melbourne and the Brotherhood of St Laurence. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guy Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Less than 15% of the most disadvantaged people in Australia exit poverty from one year to the next. We need to design policy to tackle this.Nicolas Herault, Academic, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of MelbourneFrancisco Azpitarte, Ronald Henderson Research Fellow Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research & Brotherhood of St Laurence, The University of MelbourneGuy Johnson, Professor, Urban Housing and Homelessness, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/915622018-02-18T21:26:28Z2018-02-18T21:26:28ZBroken system: Why is a quarter of Canada’s prison population Indigenous?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206587/original/file-20180215-130997-n6veim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C808%2C6413%2C3495&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People gather in Edmonton during a rally in response to Gerald Stanley's acquittal in the shooting death of Colten Boushie.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the wake of the acquittal of Gerald Stanley in the death of Colten Boushie, there have been loud <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/02/13/liberals-to-propose-jury-selection-changes-after-meeting-with-colten-boushies-family.html">calls for reform</a> to address Canada’s blatant <a href="https://theconversation.com/clearing-the-plains-continues-with-the-acquittal-of-gerald-stanley-91628">systemic racism</a> in the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>Boushie, 22, died after being shot by Stanley in the back of the head as he sat in an SUV on a farm near Biggar, Sask. </p>
<p>The Canadian justice system works <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F978-1-137-56135-0_32">against Indigenous people</a> at <a href="http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/canadas-prisons-are-the-new-residential-schools/">every level</a>, from police checks and arrests to bail denial and detention, sentencing miscarriages and disparities and high incarceration rates. </p>
<p>These trends are also well-documented in countries like the <a href="https://qz.com/392342/native-americans-are-the-unseen-victims-of-a-broken-us-justice-system/">United States</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-qanda-are-indigenous-australians-the-most-incarcerated-people-on-earth-78528">Australia</a> and <a href="http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2016/10/maori-prison-rates-at-record-levels.html">New Zealand.</a> It is clear that the problem lies in our justice systems.</p>
<p>Around the time that Canada started receding its formal <a href="http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_treaties/john_fp33_indianact.html">“Indian assimilation”</a> policies in the 1950s, including the end of the residential school requirement, penitentiary and child welfare systems started to quietly assume a new role in the lives of Indigenous people. </p>
<p>In fact, prior to the 1960s, Indigenous people only represented <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/FEWO/meeting-83/evidence">one to two per cent</a> of the federal prison population. The rates have consistently increased every year since. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/pdf/annrpt/annrpt20162017-eng.pdf">Office of the Correctional Investigator</a> reports the incarceration rate of Indigenous people is now at 26.4 per cent of the federal prison population, while they comprise only four per cent of the Canadian population. Incidentally, the Canadian crime rate has fallen in the last 20 years. </p>
<h2>Placed in segregation</h2>
<p>Not only are Indigenous people more likely to be imprisoned, but they are also more often subjected to some of the most restrictive levels of <a href="http://journals.openedition.org/champpenal/9158">punishment</a>, including segregation, forced interventions, higher security classifications, involuntary transfers, physical restraints and self-harm. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206327/original/file-20180214-174993-1lx10vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206327/original/file-20180214-174993-1lx10vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206327/original/file-20180214-174993-1lx10vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206327/original/file-20180214-174993-1lx10vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206327/original/file-20180214-174993-1lx10vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206327/original/file-20180214-174993-1lx10vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206327/original/file-20180214-174993-1lx10vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An inmate is given lunch at the segregation unit at Collins Bay Institution in Kingston, Ont., in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN/Lars Hagberg</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/rescheduled-inquest-into-indigenous-inmates-death-in-saskatoon-to-go-ahead/article34796710/">Kinew James</a> died of a heart attack after the emergency call button in her cell was routinely ignored at the Saskatoon Regional Psychiatric Centre.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/confined-the-death-of-eddie-snowshoe/article21815548/">Eddie Snowshoe</a> committed suicide after 162 days in solitary confinement at the Edmonton maximum security institution. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.calgaryherald.com/Women+Behind+Bars+Canada+only+female+dangerous+offender/5547732/story.html">Renee Acoby</a> accumulated an additional 21 years of charges in prison, spent more than half of her time in segregation, and was eventually given a dangerous offender designation for a series of prison hostage-takings. She is now effectively behind bars for life.</p>
<p>Addressing these deeply problematic prison realities is currently at the forefront of the government of Canada’s criminal <a href="http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/tcjs-tsjp/index.html">justice review</a>, including two House of Commons studies and one by a Senate committee.</p>
<p>In considering remedies, two important issues are at play.</p>
<h2>Imprisoned more often</h2>
<p>First, Indigenous people are more often criminalized and imprisoned for acts that are linked to poverty, lack of educational and employment opportunities, lifestyles of substance use, mental health concerns and histories of sexual abuse, violence and trauma — in other words, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/10/27/mmiw-inquiry-urged-to-speak-to-indigenous-women-in-prison.html">colonialism</a>.</p>
<p>Second, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/34664897/I_m_Not_Your_Carceral_Other">prisons are characterized</a> by authoritarianism, power imbalances, restriction of movement and activities, isolation, lack of freedom of association and enforcement of sometimes arbitrary and trivial demands. Prison environments often reflect and even perpetuate the very trauma and violence experienced by Indigenous people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206325/original/file-20180214-174969-tli7gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206325/original/file-20180214-174969-tli7gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206325/original/file-20180214-174969-tli7gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206325/original/file-20180214-174969-tli7gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206325/original/file-20180214-174969-tli7gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206325/original/file-20180214-174969-tli7gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206325/original/file-20180214-174969-tli7gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even though Indigenous people make up only four per cent of Canada’s population, 26.4 per cent of those incarcerated in Canadian prisons are Aboriginal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The federal government would do well to consider community options.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/web/default/files/files/files/Crime_Cost_EN.pdf">Parliamentary Budget Officer</a>, it costs upwards of $343,810 to incarcerate one woman for a year and $223,687 to incarcerate a man. The community placement option, on the other hand, is priced at $85,653 per year per person, and parole costs as little as $39,084. </p>
<p>There are already existing remedies in the <a href="http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-44.6/">Correctional and Conditional Release Act</a>, Sections 81 and 84, that allow for agreements in the community where Indigenous and non-Indigenous prisoners can serve their sentence and parole in a supported way. </p>
<p>If we want to alleviate the conditions that foster conflict and harm in the first place, we also need to ensure that basic national standards and human rights are being met for Indigenous people. </p>
<p>The private members’ <a href="http://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/C-262/first-reading">Bill C-262</a>, which outlines the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, just passed its second reading. </p>
<p>Approving this bill would ensure some of the most basic rights for Indigenous communities, including the provision of clean water, electricity, employment, education and adequate social and health services.</p>
<p>In its <a href="http://templatelab.com/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-calls-to-action/">calls to action</a>, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has recommended that the federal, provincial and territorial governments make a commitment to eliminate the over-representation of Indigenous people in custody over the next decade. </p>
<p>If the federal government takes up this call, prisons would no longer be part of the solution. As noted by Romeo Saganash, NDP’s critic for Intergovernmental Indigenous Affairs, <a href="https://openparliament.ca/politicians/romeo-saganash/?page=11">“there will be no reconciliation without justice.”</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91562/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vicki Chartrand receives funding from Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC). </span></em></p>Colten Boushie’s death and the subsequent acquittal of his killer has fuelled loud calls for reforms to Canada’s criminal justice system and its treatment of the Indigenous. Why has it taken so long?Vicki Chartrand, Associate Professor, Bishop's UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/685432016-11-15T19:07:52Z2016-11-15T19:07:52ZGive prisoners internet access for a safer and more humane community<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145400/original/image-20161110-25093-q3pgfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Denying prisoners internet access seriously damages their prospects of rehabilitation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-237356278/stock-photo-technology-prison-and-internet-addiction-victim-concept-as-human-hands-holding-virtual-jail-bars-made-from-computer-laser-beams-with-digital-binary-code.html?src=PeX-QtZK2RhZangrU-I3Og-1-16">Lightspring from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The reflexive and illogical <a href="http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR928.html">ban on internet</a> use <a href="http://www.prisonpc.com/projects.html">by prisoners</a> makes society less safe, damages families and is another appalling example of the gratuitous suffering we inflict on prisoners. It also highlights the primitive manner in which we continue to sentence offenders, almost totally divorced from normative and empirical learning. Governments should immediately legislate to provide inmates with full and unfettered (albeit monitored) access to the internet. </p>
<p>Technological advances have resulted in momentous changes to nearly every area of human activity, including engineering, medicine, transport and communications. Standing stubbornly outside this near-universal trend is the way in which the community punishes criminals. The bedrock process for dealing with serious criminals now, as it has been for hundreds of years, is to segregate them from the rest of society by placing them behind high impenetrable walls. </p>
<p>The conditions in prison have remained remarkably stagnant for inmates during this time. They are kept in oppressive, often violent conditions and almost totally shut off from the outside word – apart from token visiting privileges and limited access to television and newspapers. </p>
<p>When prisoners are released it is not surprising that <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rprts05p0510.pdf">nearly half</a> of them <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/1351.0.55.031">reoffend within a few years</a>. </p>
<p>So much has changed in the world outside prisons over the past two few decades. The single biggest change is the impact of technology on our lives – the role of the internet in particular. </p>
<p>The internet is an integral and <a href="https://withoutmedia.wordpress.com/">irreplaceable tool for most people</a>. We use it in all aspects of our lives, especially our social, study, business and work activities. Surveys show that some people would <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/10/internet-more-important-than-heating_n_3050505.html">rather be without food and water</a> than the internet.</p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://theconversation.com/offline-inmates-denied-education-and-skills-that-reduce-re-offending-38709">internet access is totally denied</a> to one group in the community: prisoners. Paradoxically, the pain from this spills over into the community. </p>
<h2>A key tool for education and rehabilitation</h2>
<p>Educating and integrating offenders is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/by-freeing-prisoners-from-cycle-of-crime-education-cuts-re-offending-42610">key rehabilitative tool</a>. And the internet is the <a href="http://rightnow.org.au/opinion-3/can-prisoners-receive-quality-education-without-access-to-the-internet/">most effective means of providing education to prisoners</a>. </p>
<p>According to the RAND Corporation, inmates participating in correctional education programs have on average a <a href="http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR564.html">43% lower chance of reoffending</a>. Prisoners who participated in academic or vocational education programs in prison are also 13% more likely to obtain employment after their release. </p>
<p>The importance of access to the internet goes well beyond educational advantages. The internet is a key tool for easing inmates’ re-entry into the community. It is indispensable to any effort to apply for jobs and benefits, enrol in education and search for housing. </p>
<p>The US Department of Education <a href="https://www.edpubs.gov/document/ed005580p.pdf">observes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Most, if not all, of these pre-release activities require some form of computer or telecommunication device and internet access.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Lack of access punishes innocent relatives</h2>
<p>Denying prisoners internet access damages not only them, but also their relatives. This is especially true given that most prisons are located in remote regions and have very limited visiting rights. This damage should be minimised, especially from the perspective of the relatives. They are blameless. </p>
<p>Access to the internet would enable prisoners to have extensive real-time and meaningful contact with their relatives. Sustaining the continued development of these relationships enhances the relatives’ quality of life while reducing the extent to which their interests are collaterally damaged by the misdeeds of others.</p>
<p>Of course, providing internet access to prisoners poses potential problems. Most notable is the concern about providing prisoners with a medium through which they could commit more crime. This might include harassing and threatening victims and witnesses.</p>
<h2>Abuse of access can be controlled</h2>
<p>However, the security concerns are overrated. Modern technology provides effective solutions to possible internet abuse by prisoners. A prisoner’s every keystroke can be readily tracked. </p>
<p>Every single type of interaction that an inmate has via the internet can be monitored. This includes web accesses, analysis of sites visited, the nature of searches undertaken and full text recognition and analysis of all information sent and received. </p>
<p>Artificial intelligence techniques are now such that not only can literal matches be made with problematic language in emails or troubling terms used in search engines, but also semantic meaning can be extracted from the entire body of a document. Endpoint security can enable the targeted or random flagging of inmate’s internet activity, for a human guard to investigate if inappropriate activity is taking place. </p>
<p>Occasional use violation will occur, but the solution to this is obvious. The prisoner who committed the breach should have internet use suspended or cancelled. Depending on the nature of breach, they may also be charged with a criminal offence. It is a grossly disproportionate response to punish all prisoners for the possible or actual infractions of a few. </p>
<p>A large amount of pornography is available on the internet. It is likely that proposals for prisoner internet access will be met with objections to the possible downloading of pornography in prison. However, in principle and pragmatically, these objections can be surmounted.</p>
<p>Prisoners in some jurisdictions already have (limited) conjugal visits. Logically, and emotively, if prisoners can have sex, it is illogical to deny them the capacity to watch sex.</p>
<p>Internet access to prisoners would lessen the pain stemming from incarceration in a manner that does not undermine the principal objectives of imprisonment — community protection and the infliction of a hardship. At the same time it provides prisoners with the opportunity to develop skills, knowledge and relationships that will better equip them for a productive life once they are released. </p>
<p>Continued internet deprivation is nothing other than an inexcusable continuation of the wanton summary punishment we inflict on prisoners.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This piece is based on a forthcoming article in the Akron Law Review, “The hardship that is internet deprivation and what it means for sentencing”, co-authored with Dr Nick Fischer.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68543/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If we are serious about rehabilitating prisoners and reducing reoffending, then education and integration back into the community are vital. Today, internet access is essential to achieve that.Mirko Bagaric, Professor of Law, Swinburne University of TechnologyDan Hunter, Dean, Swinburne Law School, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/606702016-06-16T10:03:28Z2016-06-16T10:03:28ZTracking criminals’ biodata is another step towards constant surveillance for us all<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125903/original/image-20160609-7069-1j0k5d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For some convicted criminals, punishment doesn’t end when they’re released from prison. Thanks to new electronic tags, parole officers in the US can monitor recently released prisoners 24 hours a day. These don’t just check if you have fled for Mexico, but can determine your precise movements. </p>
<p>The data harvested can be used to help prevent further crimes. Aside from making sure you observe curfews, the tags can tell if drug addicts stray into streets where they could score or track whether domestic abusers stray too close to their ex-partner’s home.</p>
<p>But modern tags such as the <a href="https://bi.com/products/exacutrack/">ExacuTrack AT</a> go way beyond monitoring movements. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/09/prison-without-walls/308195/">Some systems</a> can detect physiological changes such as the presence of alcohol or drugs in your blood. In the future, there may even be ways of detecting sexual arousal and gathering other forms of bio-data that may indicate probation infringement. But the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/09/prison-without-walls/308195/">psychological effects</a> of such constant, intrusive monitoring could arguably be seen as a kind of wearying, low-level mental torture. </p>
<p>The UK government is now planning to introduce similar tags for <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36318353">British prisoners</a> on their release. While announced alongside other prison reforms that were seen as surprisingly liberal, the move towards greater use of tagging reveals a worrying incursion into the rights of prisoners. But it could also have wider ramifications for those of us who are unlikely to get sent down.</p>
<h2>The power of HOPE</h2>
<p>The Ministry of Justice wants to follow the US model of sentencing called HOPE (Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement). This was set up in 2004 as a way of reducing reoffending rates by tagging released prisoners and randomly asking them to check in with their probation officers for frequent updates. If they failed to show up, they were sent back to jail for a few days. <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/229023.pdf">The results</a> appear to have been astonishing. For example, the rate of reoffending among drug users who were tagged and released fell by 93% in comparison to an untagged test group.</p>
<p>Although electronic tagging was not initially a main element of the program, over the years electronic and now digitised tagging have become an essential part of HOPE, which is now widespread in the US. It is clear that the success of HOPE is at least partly dependant on the digital enhancement of electronic tagging and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/09/prison-without-walls/308195/">other innovations</a> in areas such as GPS, biometrics and geoprofiling.</p>
<p>But tagging raises all sorts of ethical questions. As well as the invasion of privacy created by the monitoring of what’s happening inside people’s bodies, there is also the touchy issue of data harvesting. There are already <a href="https://theconversation.com/wearer-be-warned-your-fitness-data-may-be-sold-or-used-against-you-31283">real concerns</a> that the data harvested by wearable fitness devices will be sold on, stolen or used for other purposes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125905/original/image-20160609-7093-18ge8g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125905/original/image-20160609-7093-18ge8g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125905/original/image-20160609-7093-18ge8g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125905/original/image-20160609-7093-18ge8g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125905/original/image-20160609-7093-18ge8g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125905/original/image-20160609-7093-18ge8g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125905/original/image-20160609-7093-18ge8g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The virtual world of fitness tracking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, the Cleveland Clinic hospital in Ohio recently used biometric data harvested from its employees to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/us-money-blog/2015/may/01/employers-tracking-health-fitbit-apple-watch-big-brother">impose large hikes</a> in their insurance premiums if it was deemed they were damaging their health through lifestyle choices. These concerns are so prevalent in the industry that recently the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, America’s top privacy regulator, reportedly said she <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/06/fitbit-ces-privacy-concerns-health-step-counter-technology">refused to wear</a> a fitness tracker because of concerns relating to possible sharing of her biometric data.</p>
<p>Data harvested from prisoners is also at risk from being misused – and the difference is they can’t refuse to wear their tags. Yet, the rise of electronic tagging comes with a warning to those outside the justice system of how their lives might come to controlled by digital bracelets in a similar way.</p>
<h2>Constant rehabilitation</h2>
<p>As the UK government’s reforms show, jails are no longer lock-ups but rehabilitation hubs. Once released, your life on the outside is perpetually monitored and observed via the virtual prison of your digital tag. As mentioned, a growing number of private companies are <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/us-money-blog/2015/may/01/employers-tracking-health-fitbit-apple-watch-big-brother">issuing their employees</a> with wearable fitness trackers with a similar aim of monitoring their lifestyle to ensure they meet the firm’s healthy living standards.</p>
<p>Some employers have even tried to introduce more draconian surveillance of their staff’s biodata, for example to determine <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/us-money-blog/2015/may/01/employers-tracking-health-fitbit-apple-watch-big-brother">if they are pregnant</a>. This mirrors the situation already at play in Japan, where companies are tasked with regulating the waistlines of their employees and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/19/japan">face fines</a> if they fail to comply.</p>
<p>What prisons and some companies have in common is that they are centres of power and control. They claim to want to make you a better person, but only in return for access to your most personal data under their terms. In future, prisoners and workers alike may be stuck in a state of perpetual probation, trying their best, day after day, to live up to the expectations of their superiors. If they don’t, they face betrayal by their bracelets and the prospect of being called up to someone important to explain their biological failings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William David Watkin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The UK government’s move to electronically track criminals on parole shows how wearable technology can become a virtual prison.William David Watkin, Professor of Contemporary Philosophy and Literature, Brunel University LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/477512015-09-21T01:07:28Z2015-09-21T01:07:28ZBuilding prisons is not making us safe – what can government do?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95431/original/image-20150920-31741-2gojhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The numbers of people in Victoria’s prisons are unsustainable and in part due to recent policy changes.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Paul Miller</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Victorian Ombudsman, Deborah Glass, last week released a <a href="https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/getattachment/5188692a-35b6-411f-907e-3e7704f45e17">report</a> into the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners in the state. What can we take from its findings? </p>
<p>The report’s starting point is the reality of imprisonment: it is temporary. In more than 99% of cases, offenders will return to the community. The challenge is to consider both the conditions in prison and the post-release conditions and trajectory of offenders.</p>
<p>The report’s findings are stark. Victoria is failing in relation to rehabilitation and post-release support. The consequence is that more people are imprisoned, more often. As the report lays out, we must understand the numbers. From there, we can begin to identify solutions.</p>
<h2>The numbers</h2>
<p>There is currently a surge in the numbers of people imprisoned in Victoria. The system is over capacity and failing to cope. The system is breaking under pressure, leading to <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/prison-riots-lead-to-dangerous-maximum-security-prisoner-reshuffle-opposition-20150819-gj2tik.html">riots</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-16/violence-and-escapes-in-victorian-prisons-linked-to-overcrowding/6322620">reports of</a> increased violence and escapes. </p>
<p>The Ombudsman acknowledges, as does Corrections Minister <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-13/number-of-people-victorian-prisons-reaches-unprecedented-levels/6543706">Wade Noonan</a>, that the numbers of people in Victoria’s prisons are unsustainable and in part due to policy changes that have reduced bail and parole options:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The evidence is plain that heightened pressure on the system has resulted in reduced access to programs and services – unsurprisingly, accompanied by a rise in re-offending.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The report also makes clear what has been published previously – that women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island prisoners are disproportionately impacted by the changing conditions and practices of imprisonment. Both groups, while <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ESex%7E10002">relatively small</a> as a proportion of the total population in Victorian prisons, have experienced <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-victoria-is-leading-the-nation-backwards-38905">exponential increases</a> in the rate of imprisonment in recent years.</p>
<h2>The solution(s)</h2>
<p>Victoria needs tailored solutions, delivered as a whole-of-government strategy. Rehabilitation and reintegration looks different for men, for women, for Indigenous men and women, for those who have a cognitive disability, for young people. </p>
<p>Victoria needs a comprehensive, co-ordinated service, one that includes appropriate and adaptable models of support and care for key populations and individuals. “Whole-of-government” needs to translate into co-ordinated service delivery and sharing of information, without sacrificing accountability for outcomes.</p>
<p>There is significant research that demonstrates that support and assistance within prison works; that transitional support works; that the provision of long-term secure housing <a href="http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/imprisonmentobservatory/files/2014/09/Cairnlea-Evaluation-Report_2010.pdf">can be transformative</a>; that case management that ensures consistency and continuity can work.</p>
<p>Researchers and policymakers can thus work together to recognise what isn’t working and build practice based on evidence, rather than assumption. This also means recreating the corrections culture to be accountable and transparent to enable what doesn’t work to be identified, and for success to be celebrated.</p>
<p>Investment is essential. While the system is costing A$1 billion, the funding for rehabilitation and post-release is less than one-third of this. Noonan recently <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-13/number-of-people-victorian-prisons-reaches-unprecedented-levels/6543706">said</a> that the Andrews government</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… had committed $300 million to manage the system better and to try reduce the rate of recidivism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But as the Ombudsman’s report indicates, the current level of services and funding is inadequate. Victoria’s is not a situation unique in Australia. In South Australia, the investment in rehabilitation is <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-south-australias-prisoner-numbers-soar-with-just-10-of-budget-for-rehab-38906">reportedly</a> 10% of its corrections budget.</p>
<p>The programs in place that are producing positive results, such as the Drug and Koori Courts, the Neighbourhood Justice Centre and the Criminal Justice Diversion Program, are both underfunded and finitely funded. Neither enables the full potential of these programs to be realised.</p>
<p>Victoria once led the way in innovative <a href="https://theconversation.com/prevention-not-prison-justice-reinvestment-makes-dollars-and-sense-13878">justice investment</a>, but it now has a long way to go to reclaim this status. The Ombudsman’s report may cause despair. Yet it could also be seen as an opportunity for a new government setting out to implement a reform agenda that includes a reinvigoration of corrections-related policy. </p>
<p>The Ombudsman’s investigation and report is one step towards change. It has, to some extent, made Corrections Victoria accountable and challenged the <a href="http://theconversation.com/lifting-the-veil-on-the-crisis-in-victorias-prisons-25476">recent tendency</a> to suppress any and all information regarding the state of Victoria’s prison system. </p>
<p>What is not mentioned in this report – but which has proven critical over past decades – is the importance of public support. For too long, law-and-order politics has enabled a punitive response to criminal justice issues, including an assumption that supporting offenders within and beyond prison is tantamount to “going soft” on crime.</p>
<p>The Victorian people need to be on the side of reform. That begins with this report. It acknowledges that prison does not work, and that Victorians cannot afford the financial or social burden it places on the whole community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47751/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie Segrave receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Victoria is failing in relation to rehabilitation of prisoners and post-release support. The consequence is that more people are imprisoned, more often.Marie Segrave, Senior Lecturer, Criminology, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/403752015-06-18T20:18:00Z2015-06-18T20:18:00ZImprisonment and its alternatives: what do the public really think?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79263/original/image-20150424-14568-id2io7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Citizens' juries are one mechanism to draw on informed public opinion to guide policy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fotolia</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">Beyond Prison</a> series, which examines better ways to reduce re-offending, following the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a> series.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The alarming over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4512.0">Australian prisons</a>, combined with <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-out-one-day-back-the-next-in-queensland-38989">high recidivism rates</a> and poor health and social outcomes among ex-prisoners, has led to claims that incarceration is <a href="http://www.redcross.org.au/action-urged-to-fix-broken-prison-system.aspx">failing</a> as <a href="https://www104.griffith.edu.au/index.php/gjlhd/article/view/584">social policy</a>.</p>
<p>Prisons cost many millions of dollars to build and operate. In 2012, Australian governments <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/Completed_inquiries/2010-13/justicereinvestment/report/c03">spent</a> A$3.1 billion on correctional services, including A$2.4 billion on imprisonment alone. In the Northern Territory, which has one of the world’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-if-locking-em-up-is-the-goal-nts-a-success-39185">highest rates of incarceration</a>, the new Darwin Correctional Precinct cost an estimated <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-09/new-darwin-prison-opens/5728334">A$500 million</a> to build and will house up to 1000 prisoners.</p>
<p>Given the social and fiscal costs of imprisonment, social justice advocates and academics are increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-policy-is-turning-australia-into-the-second-nation-of-captives-38842">calling for</a> a new policy agenda. However, due to a social, political and media <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-prisoners-of-nsw-politics-and-perceptions-38985">fixation on “law and order”</a>, wider public debate often ignores the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-imprisonment-in-australia-its-time-to-take-stock-38902">need to reconsider imprisonment policies</a>. </p>
<p>The reliance on opinion polls to conceptualise and assess public opinion needs to be questioned as the first step towards reform. In our study, published by the <a href="https://www.lowitja.org.au/lowitja-publishing/L031">Lowitja Institute</a>, we sought to test a citizens’ jury approach to assessing public opinion on how the community should respond to offenders in terms of incarceration and incarceration alternatives.</p>
<h2>Tap into informed public opinion</h2>
<p>Democratic convention suggests that policymakers should take into account public opinion alongside “expert” and stakeholder knowledge. This reflects a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2009.00269.x/full">“democracy at work” approach</a> whereby what the people want informs policy and reform. Researchers and political actors alike commonly perceive public opinion to hold punitive attitudes towards offenders.</p>
<p>Large representative studies from <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rpp/100-120/rpp101.html">Australia</a>, the <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Penal_Populism_and_Public_Opinion_Lesson.html?id=9ExuP6ve4MAC">UK, North America and New Zealand</a> show striking commonalities in opinion poll findings. These suggest that most people regard sentencing as too lenient. Such research fuels the perceived <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-prisoners-of-nsw-politics-and-perceptions-38985">“lock ‘em up” attitude</a> towards offenders.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84496/original/image-20150610-6810-mcghs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84496/original/image-20150610-6810-mcghs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84496/original/image-20150610-6810-mcghs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84496/original/image-20150610-6810-mcghs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84496/original/image-20150610-6810-mcghs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84496/original/image-20150610-6810-mcghs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84496/original/image-20150610-6810-mcghs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84496/original/image-20150610-6810-mcghs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘tough on crime’ Herald Sun promoted a Victorian government survey on sentencing in 2011, with predictable findings on ‘public opinion’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Herald Sun</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, it is important to note that questions in such opinion polls are often framed in simplistic ways. These elicit ill-considered views informed by erroneous assumptions, fears, stereotypes and prejudices towards offenders. Such views are often derived from representations and debate in market-driven news media. </p>
<p>Scholars question whether we should be call these surveys public “opinion” polls at all. <a href="https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/66/55">“Public emotion polls”, “word-association tests”</a> and <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/69024/">“top-of-the-head polls”</a> have been suggested as more accurate terms. In a sense, such research works towards reducing and conceiving the public as an emotionally reactive populace, rather than a critically informed citizenry. </p>
<p>Accordingly, many misconstrue opinion poll research. Politicians exploit this to perpetuate punitive penal policies at the expense of the alternatives. </p>
<h2>Exploring a citizens’ jury approach</h2>
<p>To direct policy away from more imprisonment, methods that capture informed and considered public opinion require investigation. One possible avenue is the use of deliberative research models such as <a href="http://participedia.net/en/methods/planning-cells">planning cells</a>, <a href="http://participedia.net/en/methods/participatory-consensus-conferences">consensus conferences</a> and <a href="http://participedia.net/en/methods/citizens-jury">citizens’ juries</a>.</p>
<p>In Australia, <a href="http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/effective-engagement/toolkit/tool-citizen-juries">citizens’ juries</a> have been used in areas such as <a href="http://lwa.gov.au/files/products/social-and-institutional-research-program/pr040804/pr040804.pdf">environmental management</a> and <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/158500198?selectedversion=NBD47965978">health care</a>. Only recently have they been used in a <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/69024/">criminal justice context</a>. </p>
<p>Based on a similar principle to legal juries, citizens’ juries bring together a randomly selected group of citizens (“jurors”) who are said to “represent”, or be inclusive of, the community. Jurors are given access to a range of information. They can question and clarify key issues through discussions with the “experts” or knowledge producers.</p>
<p>Jurors are also involved in extensive discussion with each other as part of the deliberative process. This enables them to develop nuanced conclusions about a subject area as well as more considered preferences for particular policy approaches.</p>
<p>We held citizens’ juries in Sydney, Canberra and Perth. Jurors were asked to deliberate on the principles that should underlie responses to offenders and strategies to enact those principles. Principles identified across juries included:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>equity and fairness, particularly in relation to the social, cultural and economic circumstances of offenders;</p></li>
<li><p>prevention, including a commitment to tackling the causes of offending;</p></li>
<li><p>community involvement in the development of justice and penal policies. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>While Canberra and Perth jurors highlighted a preference for retaining deprivation of liberty for very serious offences, ways of enacting these principles primarily included strong support for non-punitive approaches and alternatives to incarceration. Strategies included:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>better services and programmes to address the underlying determinants of crime</p></li>
<li><p>prison diversion programmes</p></li>
<li><p>raising awareness of prison alternatives to promote discussion and prospective public endorsement of such options</p></li>
<li><p>a commitment to allocating public funds to non-incarceration options.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The study presented methodological and practical challenges. For the Sydney jury, we outline these in a <a href="http://media.wix.com/ugd/b629ee_5a69aa74f5c246bb9178ad06b392a0ca.pdf">Journal of Australian Political Economy</a> article. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the findings indicate that given the opportunity to deliberate on wider knowledge about offenders and responses to offending, participants preferred prison alternatives. They were less concerned with punitive “tough on crime” approaches.</p>
<h2>Questioning the terms of debate</h2>
<p>Ultimately, change towards decarceration policies will occur when the wider community accepts and demands change. </p>
<p>Community demands should ideally be critically informed, not emotively driven. The latter lends itself to exploitation by media and political populists. </p>
<p>Questioning public discourse on crime and punishment should be encouraged. It is important to begin examining how public opinion is conceived and assessed when it is used to justify policy. </p>
<p>Deliberative research and forums can contribute to a new, informed discourse. Our study provides a small contribution in highlighting the potential of public opinion research to shift the criminal justice emphasis away from imprisonment and towards its alternatives. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the Beyond Prison series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40375/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Simpson receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. The Citizens Juries research report referred to in this article was funded by The Lowitja Institute.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Butler receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. The Citizens Juries research report referred to in this article was funded by The Lowitja Institute.</span></em></p>It is claimed ‘tough on crime’ policies reflect public opinion, but a properly informed public, via models such as citizens’ juries, is likely to arrive at different views on prison and its alternatives.Paul Simpson, Research fellow, UNSW SydneyTony Butler, Professor and Programme Head , UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/400772015-06-17T01:28:47Z2015-06-17T01:28:47ZPost-release mentoring succeeds in everything but winning funding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84478/original/image-20150610-6790-1y5ko0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1168%2C2330%2C1716&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Funding CCTV cameras annihilated a proposal in NSW to create a mentoring program directed at young women in prisons or undergoing release.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Julian Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">Beyond Prison</a> series, which examines better ways to reduce re-offending, following the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a> series.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In December 2013, federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan wrote to 151 community organisations to announce that the new Coalition government would not honour the projects that its Labor predecessor had approved under the National Crime Prevention Fund. The <a href="https://www.wipan.net.au/">Women in Prison Advocacy Network</a> (WIPAN) was among the organisations that were written to.</p>
<p>Keenan argued that these projects had not entered into a formal funding agreement. They would be replaced by the A$50 million <a href="http://www.anao.gov.au/Publications/Audit-Reports/2014-2015/The-Award-of-Funding-under-the-Safer-Streets-Programme/Audit-summary">plan</a> for safer streets, which addressed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… crime and anti-social behaviour by measures such as CCTV cameras and better lighting. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Funding the “CCTV cameras” effectively annihilated WIPAN’s proposal of creating a mentoring program directed at young women in prisons or undergoing release. This program was responding to the growing presence of young women in the NSW prison system and the disproportionate criminalisation of young Indigenous women.</p>
<p>The safer streets plan expands on <a href="http://legacy.usfsm.edu/academics/cas/capstone/2010-2011/criminology/chaplinski-forensic%20intelligence.pdf?from=404">“evidence and intelligence-led policing”</a>. CCTV cameras become part of a network of security technologies that employ analysis and intelligence work to gather data and evidence on criminals. </p>
<p>This focus falls within risk-management police strategies posed as preventing crimes and recidivism by placing an emphasis on those identified as risky offenders. In doing so, it stands in opposition to WIPAN’s mentoring work. </p>
<p>WIPAN actively rejects the way that state and law enforcement agencies view some women as risky criminals. It specialises in addressing historical and current mechanisms that produce the <a href="http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/24468/">“hyper-incarceration”</a> of especially Indigenous women and those culturally differentiated as vulnerable through a mix of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, class and educational status, disability, mental and physical health.</p>
<p>WIPAN’s principal focus is on assisting women to transform the varied, complex social circumstances that have shaped their criminalisation. This acknowledges that these women, more often than not, have also been the subjects of crimes within and outside institutional settings. It aims to assist women in the criminal justice system to (self) determine forms of diversion from unhealthy practices, violent settings and relationships and, ultimately, re-imprisonment. </p>
<p>WIPAN emerged in 2007. It successfully ran its first gender-responsive mentoring program in 2009. The program pairs women in prison and after release with mentors recruited from the community who have been formally trained by TAFE and WIPAN. Maintaining non-judgemental, practical and emotional support and guidance drives the mentoring relationship. </p>
<p>Mentoring is especially focused on women transitioning to or already on release. One comparative <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=s4qsAgAAQBAJ&pg">study</a> on the post-release experiences of women in Victoria and the UK confirms WIPAN’s own <a href="https://www.wipan.net.au/publications/WIPAN_The_Report_Pilot_Mentoring_Program_2009-2011-OK.pdf">findings</a> in NSW that this is a precarious moment. The risks are compounded by a lack of essential and relevant support. </p>
<p>These women are likely to have a range of difficulties in re-entering the community. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>finding services that support their diverse needs;</p></li>
<li><p>finding safe and non-violent accommodation; </p></li>
<li><p>dealing with risks of drug use; </p></li>
<li><p>re-establishing or cutting ties from family and community relations; </p></li>
<li><p>finding employment; </p></li>
<li><p>not resuming unhealthy friendships; and</p></li>
<li><p>re-uniting with children. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>These findings show that women coming out of jail require forms of assistance that are not simply related to the surveillance technologies for prevention or elimination of recidivism, but rather that are focused on women’s health and well-being. </p>
<p>Therefore, WIPAN staff and mentors act as social contacts who follow up, advocate and provide ongoing everyday practical and emotional support. They collaborate in the advancement and “enhancement of the well-being of prisoners and ex-prisoners” by increasing their social capital. They support community reintegration by helping women to cope, to seek the support they need and to make autonomous decisions.</p>
<p>WIPAN’s <a href="https://www.wipan.net.au/publications/WIPAN_The_Report_Pilot_Mentoring_Program_2009-2011-OK.pdf">pilot program</a>, which ran from May 2010 to November 2011, indicated that even a short period of mentoring has a positive influence on the participants. Significantly, its emphasis on social support had meant that out of the 20 women who stayed in the program for more than two months, only one returned to prison. </p>
<p>While these women had previously been criminalised as “recidivists” and “serial recidivists”, WIPAN’s mentoring program successfully assisted them to exit criminalisation. </p>
<p>The Productivity Commission <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/114940/24-government-services-2012-chapter8.pdf">reported</a> in 2010 that the total operating costs per prisoner are A$100,740 per year, or $276 per day. The pilot program run by WIPAN operated on a $100,000 annual budget. It assisted 19 women in not re-entering prison.</p>
<p>In 2015, WIPAN does not know if it will continue to be funded. The current government emphasis on funding security technologies robs WIPAN’s potential success in mentoring. And, most importantly, it robs women of quite possibly their best chance to exit criminalisation.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the Beyond Prison series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lara Palombo received an Australian Postgraduate Awards scholarship. Lara Palombo is a volunteer of WIPAN (Women in Prison Advocacy Network) and IWSA (Immigrant Women SpeakOut Association).</span></em></p>Women coming out of jail require forms of assistance that are not simply directed at technologies for prevention or elimination of recidivism, but rather that are focused on health and well-being.Lara Palombo, PhD scholar and Lecturer and Tutor in Critical and Cultural Studies, City Campus., Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/407582015-06-16T02:07:51Z2015-06-16T02:07:51ZBurdens of war service create a strong case for a veterans’ court<p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">Beyond Prison</a> series, which examines better ways to reduce re-offending, following the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a> series.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The centenary of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/gallipoli">Gallipoli landings</a> and other significant <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/anzac-centenary">wartime anniversaries</a> has prompted sober reflections on the enduring and multifaceted <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/griffith-review-enduring-legacies">consequences of war</a> in the 20th century. While it is well known that the experience of war or military service has a wide range of effects on soldiers, the way these affect war veterans charged with criminal offences on return to Australia is less well known.</p>
<p>For serving armed forces personnel, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-new-australian-military-court-a-fair-go-for-defence-force-personnel-7861">military justice system</a> is a closed system for dealing with offences. Former soldiers charged with offences are dealt with through the ordinary criminal justice system.</p>
<h2>A special category of defendants</h2>
<p>We might think that these ex-soldiers’ treatment is indistinguishable from that of any other defendant. But <a href="http://cal.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cal/article/view/22517/18316">research</a> reveals such individuals are accorded special status in criminal adjudication and sentencing practices – as “veteran defendants”. </p>
<p>This category of “veteran defendants” – apparent by implication, rather than on the face of the law – exposes the way in which the changing social meanings of war, soldiers and soldiering affect the legal treatment of veterans. </p>
<p>The research, based on a qualitative study of criminal cases of ex-soldiers charged with serious offences, shows that different ideas about individual responsibility for crime run through these cases. These ideas centre on the ex-soldier as a complex figure, simultaneously agentic and victim-like, courageous and vulnerable, both more and less than other defendants.</p>
<p>The research indicates that the special status of “veteran defendants” has two dimensions.</p>
<p>On the one hand, “veteran defendants” are seen as <em>über</em>-citizens, civic models or exemplars. They are people to whom gratitude is owed and who generate responsibility in others involved in the adjudication and evaluation process. </p>
<p>On the other hand, they are legal persons with “diminished capacity”. This means they have impaired or reduced responsibility for crime. </p>
<p>What explains the specialness of “veteran defendants”? Early in the 20th century, notions of bravery, loyalty and sacrifice animate the legal treatment of such individuals. As one <a href="http://cal.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cal/article/view/22517">judge stated</a>, in some cases of “exceptional valour” or serious injury, “society owes them [soldiers] much”.</p>
<p>In more recent decades, and particularly since the Vietnam War, the idea of war as traumatic, perhaps even <a href="http://www.voiceforthedefenseonline.com/story/criminogenic-risk-assessments-what-are-they-and-what-do-they-mean-your-client">criminogenic</a>, has risen to the fore. With this has come an idea of the criminal actions of ex-soldiers as being in some way caused or determined. In the latter category of cases, an individual’s war trauma may form the basis of a defence (such as diminished responsibility) to the charge, or mitigate their sentence.</p>
<p>Even with reliance on clinical diagnoses such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/treating-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-confronting-the-horror-28731">post-traumatic stress disorder</a> (PTSD), however, the complexity of the personal <a href="https://theconversation.com/marked-men-anxiety-alienation-and-the-aftermath-of-war-38593">experience of war trauma</a> remains hard for the criminal legal system to grasp.</p>
<p>It is clear from this research that judges are trying to accommodate the specific circumstances of “veteran defendants”. But it’s not clear that individuals with significant mental disorders and other treatment needs can be appropriately dealt with in prison, nor that such an approach serves either victims or the wider community well. </p>
<h2>Veterans’ courts point way to broader reform</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83178/original/image-20150527-4828-1kkkb72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83178/original/image-20150527-4828-1kkkb72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83178/original/image-20150527-4828-1kkkb72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83178/original/image-20150527-4828-1kkkb72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83178/original/image-20150527-4828-1kkkb72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83178/original/image-20150527-4828-1kkkb72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83178/original/image-20150527-4828-1kkkb72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">US veterans’ courts focus on rehabilitation to help prevent re-offending.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://nyshealthfoundation.org/about-us/annual-highlights/best-of-2010/replicating-veterans-treatment-courts/">NYS Health Foundation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Veterans’ courts offer an alternative. As they operate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans%27_court">in the US</a>, such specialist courts are therapeutic. They <a href="http://www.justiceforvets.org/what-is-a-veterans-treatment-court">focus on treatment and rehabilitation</a> rather than punishment.</p>
<p>Through such courts, drug treatment, job training and other programmes attempt to address the causes of criminal conduct. Judicial officers develop specific expertise in relevant cases. </p>
<p>Such specialist courts, like diversion and restorative justice approaches to crime, emphasise <a href="https://theconversation.com/justice-reform-a-better-way-to-deal-with-sexual-assault-19692">“participation, validation, collaboration and accountability”</a> on the part of the defendant. These courts also have the potential to go some way to serving victims’ interests by reducing recidivism.</p>
<p>Australian experiences of war have varied significantly. But, despite declining numbers of active military personnel, fewer military casualties and scant public support for war or overseas troop deployments, the social status of returned service men and women has remained high. </p>
<p>Capitalising on this status, and seizing an opportunity to reset our approach to crime, the creation of veterans’ courts would represent another way of providing ongoing support to military veterans.</p>
<p>Discussion of such a proposal could be part of a wider community conversation about criminal justice and <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">imprisonment</a>. The latest evidence of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-is-in-you-cant-link-imprisonment-to-crime-rates-40074">disconnect between imprisonment rates and crime rates</a> provides yet more support for a fundamental reconsideration of criminal justice in Australia.</p>
<p>The creation of a specialist court for veterans may well generate real momentum for treatment-oriented courts. It would thus represent the vanguard of a wider, long-term movement towards a justice system that genuinely tackles the causes of crime. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the Beyond Prison series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research is supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) grant Responsibility in Criminal Law (DE130100418).</span></em></p>The creation of veterans’ courts could be part of a fundamental shift to a criminal justice system that genuinely tackles the causes of crime.Arlie Loughnan, Associate Professor in Law, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/419602015-06-15T20:19:36Z2015-06-15T20:19:36ZCrime and punishment and rehabilitation: a smarter approach<p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">Beyond Prison</a> series, which examines better ways to reduce re-offending, following the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a> series.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Although criminal justice agencies in Australia have, in recent years, adopted an increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-policy-is-turning-australia-into-the-second-nation-of-captives-38842">“get tough” approach</a>, responses to crime that rely on punishment alone have failed to make our communities <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-is-in-you-cant-link-imprisonment-to-crime-rates-40074">safer</a>. Instead, they have produced an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-imprisonment-in-australia-its-time-to-take-stock-38902">expanding prison system</a>. This has the potential to <a href="http://www.smartjustice.org.au/cb_pages/files/SMART_MorePrisons%20Final%20Revised%202014.pdf">do more harm than good</a> and places considerable strain on government budgets.</p>
<p>Increasing prison sentences <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/publications/does-imprisonment-deter">does little to deter</a> criminal behaviour. Longer sentences are associated with higher rates of re-offending. When prisoners return to their communities, as the vast majority inevitably do, the problems multiply. </p>
<h2>Exposing the limitations of punishment</h2>
<p>In this context, it becomes important to think carefully about public policy responses that aim to punish and deter offenders. Psychologists have been <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25462507">studying punishment</a> under well-controlled laboratory conditions with both animals and humans for nearly 100 years. Its effectiveness in promoting short-term behavioural change, or even in suppressing negative behaviour, depends on rather specific conditions being in place.</p>
<p>For punishment to work it has to be predictable. Punishment also has to be applied at maximum intensity to work, or else tolerance and temporary effects result. Yet applying very intense levels of punishment for many offences goes against our sense of justice and fairness. </p>
<p>The threat of punishment, no matter how severe, will not deter anyone who believes they can get away with it. It will also not deter those who are too overcome by emotion or <a href="https://theconversation.com/good-mental-health-care-in-prisons-must-begin-and-end-in-the-community-40011">disordered thinking</a> to care about the consequences of their behaviour. </p>
<p>Punishment also has to be immediate. Delayed punishment provides opportunities for other behaviours to be reinforced. In reality, it often takes months – if not years – for someone to be apprehended, appear in court and be sentenced. </p>
<h2>Working towards more effective rehabilitation</h2>
<p>Many of the conditions required for punishment to be effective will not exist in any justice system. It follows that policies and programmes that focus on rehabilitating offenders will have a greater chance of success in preventing crime and improving community safety. </p>
<p>The origins of offender rehabilitation in Australia can be traced back to the early
penal colonies and, in particular, to <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=PTIKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA3&dq=convict&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=Clz7SqKcE5WelQTp47ncDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">the work</a> of <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/maconochie-alexander-2417">Alexander Maconochie</a>, a prison governor on Norfolk Island in 1840. Maconochie introduced the idea of
indeterminate rather than fixed sentences, implemented a system of rehabilitation in which good behaviour counted towards prisoners’ early release, and advocated a system of aftercare and community resettlement. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=934&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=934&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=934&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Much more is known about punishment and rehabilitation than when John Howard first gave evidence to a House of Commons committee in 1774.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howard_(prison_reformer)#/media/File:John_Howard_by_Mather_Brown.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/John Howard by Mather Brown (1789)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Maconochie’s ideas built on those of the great social reformers of 18th-century Britain, notably Quakers such as <a href="http://www.howardleague.org/johnhoward/">John Howard</a> and <a href="http://www.howardleague.org/elizabethfry/">Elizabeth Fry</a>. They were among the first to try to change prisons from what they called “institutions of deep despair and cruel punishment” to places that were more humane and had the potential to reform prisoners’ lives. </p>
<p>These days, though, offender rehabilitation is often thought about in terms of psychological treatment. We can chart the rise of current programmes according to the broad traditions of <a href="http://psychcentral.com/lib/psychodynamic-therapy/">psychodynamic psychotherapy</a>, behaviour modification and <a href="http://psychcentral.com/lib/about-behavior-therapy/">behaviour therapy</a> and, more recently, the <a href="http://www.aacbt.org/viewStory/WHAT+IS+CBT%3F">cognitive-behavioural</a> and <a href="http://psychcentral.com/lib/about-cognitive-psychotherapy/">cognitive approaches</a> that characterise contemporary practice. </p>
<p>The earliest therapeutic work in the psychoanalytic tradition saw delinquent behaviour as the product of a failure in psychological development. It was thought this could be addressed through gaining insight into the causes of offending. A wide range of group and milieu therapies were developed for use with offenders, including <a href="http://psychcentral.com/lib/about-group-therapy/">group counselling</a> and psychodrama. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, more behavioural methods – such as <a href="http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Token-economy-system.html">token economies</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contingency_management">contingency management</a> programmes and “time out” – replaced psychotherapy.</p>
<p>There are good grounds to develop standardised incentive models in Australia’s prisons. Community-style therapeutic programmes for prisoners with substance use problems in Victoria, NSW and the ACT represent substantial advances in practice. </p>
<p>These programmes take advantage of the significant therapeutic opportunities that arise by looking closely at prisoners’ social functioning and day-to-day interactions. They actively encourage offenders to assume responsibility not only for their own behaviour, but for that of others. </p>
<p>However, rehabilitation today is almost always associated with cognitive-behavioural therapy. This targets a relatively narrow range of crime-producing (or “criminogenic”) needs, including pro-criminal attitudes – those thoughts, values and sentiments that support criminal conduct. Programmes also dedicate a lot of time to trying to change personality traits, such as low self-control, hostility, pleasure- or thrill-seeking and lack of empathy. </p>
<p>Not everyone can be successfully treated. Substantial evidence now exists, though, to suggest that this type of approach does produce socially significant reductions in re-offending. </p>
<h2>Essential steps in making corrections policy work</h2>
<p>The challenges lie in ensuring that the right programmes are delivered to the right people at the right time. </p>
<p>First, it is important that low-risk offenders have minimal contact with higher-risk offenders. Extended contact is only likely to increase their risk of recidivism. This has implications for prisoner case management, prison design and for the courts. </p>
<p>Courts have the power to divert low-risk offenders from prison and thus minimise contact with more entrenched offenders. Related to this is the need to develop effective systems of community-based rehabilitation, leaving prisons for the most dangerous and highest-risk offenders.</p>
<p>Second, concerted efforts are required to develop innovative programmes for those who identify with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander cultural backgrounds. They are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-imprisonment-in-australia-its-time-to-take-stock-38902">grossly over-represented</a> across all levels of the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>Third, staff need to be properly selected, trained, supervised and resourced to deliver the highest-quality rehabilitation services to the most complex and challenging people. </p>
<p>Finally, it is important to demonstrate that programmes actually make offenders better, not worse. The types of evaluation that are needed to attribute positive change to programme completion are complex, require large numbers of participants and cross-jurisdictional collaboration. A national approach to programme evaluation is sorely needed. </p>
<p>This is not to suggest that criminal behaviour shouldn’t be punished – only that we should not rely on punishment by itself to change behaviour. We need to create a true system of rehabilitation that can enhance the corrective impact of
punishment-based approaches. </p>
<p>It also doesn’t mean that punishment never works. It may work reasonably well with some people – perhaps those who are future-oriented, have good self-monitoring and regulation skills, and who can make the connection between their behaviour and negative consequences months later. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, many people in prison simply aren’t like this. The challenge, then, is two-fold: to find ways to make punishment more effective and to tackle the causes of offending through high-quality rehabilitation.</p>
<p>Correctional services often get little credit for their efforts. They are widely criticised when things go wrong. However, their efforts to rehabilitate offenders are not only sensible, but also cost-efficient and practical.</p>
<p>We need to support efforts to create a true system of rehabilitation. Such a system will be comprehensive, coherent and internally consistent in applying evidence-based practice at all levels.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is based on the author’s keynote presentation to the <a href="https://groups.psychology.org.au/cfp/2015conference/">2015 APS College of Forensic Psychologists Conference</a> in Sydney.</em></p>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the Beyond Prison series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41960/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Day does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Approaches to crime that rely on punitive methods have proved to be ineffective and counter-productive. Rehabilitation programmes not only prevent crime, but are cost-effective and practical.Andrew Day, Professor of Psychology; Member of the Strategic Research Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/406952015-06-15T01:47:03Z2015-06-15T01:47:03Z‘Tough on crime’ is creating a lost generation of Indigenous youth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84488/original/image-20150610-6804-1ssynj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indigenous young people are 25 times more likely to be detained than non-Indigenous young people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Jesse Roberts</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For much of the 20th century, generations of Indigenous youth – known collectively as the Stolen Generations – were forcibly removed from their families by the force of law and placed in missions and state institutions. Today, Indigenous children are removed and placed in state institutions of another kind: juvenile detention centres. </p>
<p>Then-prime minister Kevin Rudd’s <a href="http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples">apology</a> to members of the Stolen Generation in 2008 included a promise that it would never happen again. And yet, a new generation of Indigenous youth is being separated from their families and culture – this time by the force of the criminal law.</p>
<p>The issue is now so grave that it has surpassed that of a “criminal justice” issue. It has become a “social justice” issue – one that ought to be of concern to all Australians, especially politicians and policymakers.</p>
<h2>The juvenile ‘justice’ system</h2>
<p>About half (52%) of young people in juvenile detention centres are <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129549675#page=9&zoom=auto,-120,675">Indigenous</a>. The <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/mr/1-20/12.html">rate of imprisonment</a> among Indigenous youth is 348 per 100,000, compared with 14 non-Indigenous youth per 100,000, aged 10 to 17 years, in juvenile detention facilities across Australia.</p>
<p>In practical terms, this means that Indigenous young people are 25 times more likely to be detained than non-Indigenous young people. This is an <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi416.pdf">increase</a> from 24 times more likely in 2011.</p>
<p>The reasons for this are complex and have been documented extensively, most notably in the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/">Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody</a> in 1991. </p>
<p>Twenty-four years on from the royal commission, few of the 339 recommendations have been implemented into government policy. Indigenous incarceration rates have actually increased. Research <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=NsX7VxR8GiwC">indicates</a> that the rate of over-representation of Indigenous young people has steadily increased since 1994. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi390.pdf">Research</a> reveals that Indigenous young people still receive more referrals to court and fewer police cautions when compared with non-Indigenous young people. They are more likely to have their matters to go to court, more likely to plead guilty and more likely to receive more serious and heavier penalties than non-Indigenous youth. They are significantly more likely to be held in detention on remand.</p>
<p>Yet an analysis of statistics only takes us so far. The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/23/aboriginal-deaths-in-custody-spark-national-day-of-action">death</a> in custody in August 2014 of a young Yamatji woman for A$1000 in unpaid fines illustrates the human cost of playing “law and order” politics. </p>
<p>This tragic and entirely avoidable loss ought to serve as a stern reminder to government departments of the urgency in addressing the issue of Indigenous juvenile justice. Instead, Western Australian Attorney-General Michael Mischin publicly <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/minister-michael-mischin-defends-jail-time-for-fines-after-woman-dies-in-custody/story-e6frgczx-1227036579422">defended</a> the state policy of “paying down” fines with jail time.</p>
<h2>Alternatives to detention</h2>
<p>The reasons for over-representation are complex. In light of this, there are no simple or quick fixes. That said, we know a great deal about what works. </p>
<p>A good start would be to implement and ensure policy consistency with the royal commission’s 339 recommendations.</p>
<p>We know that locally designed and community-based solutions are key. Many Aboriginal community members and elders are already involved in community initiatives targeted at keeping young people safe, often for little or no remuneration. </p>
<p>Good examples include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>night patrols, such as the Redfern Streetbeat, the <a href="http://www.atns.net.au/agreement.asp?EntityID=3065">Bourke Community Assistance Patrol</a>, the <a href="https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1G1-202399326/funding-in-doubt-for-street-cruize">Grafton Streetcruize</a>, the <a href="http://www.dnc.org.au/SafeAboriginalYouthPatrol.html">Dubbo Community Patrol</a></p></li>
<li><p>mentoring programs, such as <a href="http://tribalwarrior.org/">Tribal Warrior</a> and the <a href="https://aimementoring.com/">Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience</a> </p></li>
<li><p>cultural centres, such as <a href="http://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/db/projects/272404.html">Tirkandi Inaburra</a> and the <a href="http://ncie.org.au/">National Centre of Indigenous Excellence</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There is emerging evidence that <a href="http://www.justreinvest.org.au/">justice reinvestment</a> – taking money out of prisons and putting it back into the community – is effective in reducing youth crime levels. There is also a significant evidentiary basis to suggest that a “tough on crime” approach almost certainly does not work. </p>
<p>However, it does win elections.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the Beyond Prison series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Porter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new generation of Indigenous youth is being separated from their families and culture – this time by the force of criminal law that ignores the proven alternative of community-based justice.Amanda Porter, Researcher, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/402982015-06-14T20:17:43Z2015-06-14T20:17:43ZWhat are prisons for? Answering that is the starting point for reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83614/original/image-20150602-6993-1p77tsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Unless most prisoners are given a realistic prospect of rehabilitation, how much good can prison really do? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-167542415/stock-photo-giving-a-key-to-prisoner.html?src=uFVDE75c7mMQZzf-M_BhQQ-1-15">Shutterstock/sakhorn</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">Beyond Prison</a> series, which examines better ways to reduce re-offending, following the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a> series.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Is the purpose of incarceration to punish wrongdoing, or to protect society from dangerous individuals? Is it to make an example of criminals to deter others, or to reform those who stray beyond the bounds of acceptable behaviour? There are arguments for each of these approaches to incarceration, and they often stand in conflict with one another. </p>
<p>Currently, sentencing policy in Australia reflects an apparently arbitrary mixture of all four approaches. The result is that incarceration is often <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/statistics/sentencing-statistics/released-prisoners-returning-to-prison">ineffective</a> and even counter-productive. </p>
<p>Until we decide what prisons are for, we cannot formulate coherent public policy that prevents the arbitrary or <a href="http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/law/aboriginal-prison-rates#axzz3brgK8p6u">unfair use</a> of incarceration against <a href="http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/05/31/drug-use-mental-illness-linked-to-likelihood-of-returning-to-jail/85135.html">vulnerable people</a>. Australia’s <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/allprimarymainfeatures/9B3F80C43A73AF6CCA2568B7001B4595?opendocument">use of incarceration</a> is often determined by inscrutable factors beyond the apparent threat that individuals pose to others. </p>
<p>The expected benefits of incarcerating young Indigenous men from remote communities for <a href="http://www.criminologyresearchcouncil.gov.au/reports/CRG_38-0910_FinalReport.pdf">unpaid driving fines</a> is unclear. So is the purpose of incarcerating people for <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4517.0/">non-violent crimes related to drug dependence</a>. But the financial and personal costs are massive. </p>
<h2>Prison is failing as a deterrent</h2>
<p>Evidence clearly shows that incarceration does not act as a <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/Does%20Imprisonment%20Deter%20A%20Review%20of%20the%20Evidence.pdf">strong deterrent</a>, since most people – particularly young people – do not make rational, cost-benefit analyses before engaging in illegal behaviour. Recidivism rates in <a href="https://theconversation.com/offline-inmates-denied-education-and-skills-that-reduce-re-offending-38709">Australia and the US</a> clearly indicate that prisons are not “rehabilitating” most offenders.</p>
<p>Prisons do keep people off the streets while they are incarcerated, but the average sentence is <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-3b-a-year-system-is-flying-blind-in-supporting-ex-prisoners-39999">quite short</a>, so the incapacitation effect is limited. We also know that many people resume illegal and risky behaviour shortly after they return home. </p>
<p>Recently released prisoners experience extremely high rates of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2955973/">fatal drug overdoses and other unnatural deaths</a> during their first few weeks in the community. Far from “rehabilitating” them, by reducing their tolerance to opiates without effectively treating their drug dependence, incarceration puts the lives of drug-dependent prisoners at risk. </p>
<p>This clear harm to prisoners should be outweighed by a benefit to broader society. But in the case of people incarcerated for non-violent drug-related crimes, the net benefit seems unclear. </p>
<h2>Punishment alone is poor policy</h2>
<p>Do we gain anything simply from seeing punishment inflicted on those who have behaved unacceptably? It seems obvious from the public reaction to high-profile violent crimes that some have a strong desire to see retribution visited on those who harm others. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83616/original/image-20150602-6967-jdpphh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83616/original/image-20150602-6967-jdpphh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83616/original/image-20150602-6967-jdpphh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83616/original/image-20150602-6967-jdpphh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83616/original/image-20150602-6967-jdpphh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83616/original/image-20150602-6967-jdpphh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83616/original/image-20150602-6967-jdpphh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83616/original/image-20150602-6967-jdpphh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Difficulties in finding work and housing after release from prison increase risks of re-offending.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-100352522/stock-photo-homeless-young-man-begging-in-street.html?src=rENEj0s_KxGA5sfeOEqgGg-1-103">Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In handing down a severe sentence, a judge, on behalf of society, condemns the behaviour of the offender. The length of the sentence is taken by many people to indicate the level of condemnation. As such, elements of the public and the media often decry “short” sentences for violent crimes as an indication that the legal system does not take these crimes seriously. </p>
<p>However, beyond a desire for retribution, what is there to recommend a long sentence over a short one? A 25-year-old man who is incarcerated until he is 30 has experienced a catastrophic blow. Beyond the loss of his liberty, his relationships with his friends and loved ones are likely to change dramatically and may be destroyed altogether. His chances of finding stable housing and fulfilling work after he is released are poor. </p>
<p>The characterisation of short sentences as somehow trivial dramatically underestimates the profound impact that even brief periods of incarceration can have on people’s lives. Incarceration is an intrinsically harsh punishment. Why then do we mete it out so readily? </p>
<h2>Time to reform practices with medieval origins</h2>
<p>Punitive practices in English-speaking countries have their roots in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison#History">medieval period</a>. Initially, incarceration was not a punishment in itself but simply a way of detaining people until <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/138384/corporal-punishment">corporal punishment</a> was delivered.</p>
<p>This strongly retributive approach to criminal sanctions came about at a time when its impact on crime could not be measured. It was believed that harsh punishments were inherently just and that delivering them in public would have a strong deterrent effect. The torturous methods of execution for which the medieval period is known serve as a vivid reminder of the barbarity of that system. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83613/original/image-20150602-6987-19wjrud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83613/original/image-20150602-6987-19wjrud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83613/original/image-20150602-6987-19wjrud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83613/original/image-20150602-6987-19wjrud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83613/original/image-20150602-6987-19wjrud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83613/original/image-20150602-6987-19wjrud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83613/original/image-20150602-6987-19wjrud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83613/original/image-20150602-6987-19wjrud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If the purpose is primarily to punish, then it’s only a matter of degrees that separates our penal system from medieval times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breaking_Wheel.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>The tide turned on this approach in the 18th century. Sentences of corporal punishment began to be commuted to forced labour, sometimes combined with transportation to Australia. This was the birth of incarceration as we now know it, as a punishment in itself.</p>
<p>Since then, the focus has shifted to rehabilitation. However, a strong punitive element remains in our current system. </p>
<p>English-style law is subject to a constant process of ad-hoc additions and subtractions, but this process is not guided by a coherent underlying philosophy. After centuries of revision and augmentation, far from a consistent system with a clear rationale for when, how, why and against whom incarceration should be used, we have been left with a monster designed by committee. </p>
<p>There are clearly people who present so great a danger to others that something must be done. The public rightly expects to be protected from those who have committed acts of terrible violence and who demonstrate no remorse or desire to change. It may very well be that prison is the only place for such people.</p>
<p>However, such people do not comprise the <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-policy-is-turning-australia-into-the-second-nation-of-captives-38842">majority of the prison population</a>. We use incarceration against many people who do not pose any serious threat to others. We also have no reason to believe that people with drug-dependence problems or <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/huge-leap-in-finedefaulters-doing-jail-time/story-fn9hm1pm-1227105205459">those who cannot afford to pay fines</a> will be “reformed” by spending time in prison.</p>
<p>It seems unlikely that the retention of punitive elements in a system that ostensibly seeks to rehabilitate and reform is improving outcomes. Centuries after corporal punishment was phased out in the West and the modern prison was born, we are yet to seriously confront this persistent, base element of our approach to criminal justice. </p>
<p>If the punitive approach to incarceration is harming a great many people without making the rest of us safer, perhaps it’s time we left it behind.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the Beyond Prison series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40298/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sentencing policy is a mixed bag of approaches: punishment, deterrence, protection and rehabilitation. The system will remain costly and ineffective until punitive instincts give way to a more rational approach.Kathryn Snow, Researcher in Epidemiology, The University of MelbourneLynn Gillam, Academic Director/ Clinical Ethicist, Children’s Bioethics Centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital, and Associate Professor in Health Ethics at the Centre for Health and Society, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.