tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/beyond-prison-17558/articlesBeyond Prison – The Conversation2015-06-19T00:42:28Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/401592015-06-19T00:42:28Z2015-06-19T00:42:28ZHow do we break down a $3.4b prisons bill? What can it tell us?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84929/original/image-20150613-1453-1egmr3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Longer-term objectives of prison, such as their cost as a deterrent or the cost of failures to rehabilitate, are much harder to put a price on.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</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>
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<p>Australia’s states are struggling to bear the costs of their growing prison population.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>It costs <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-can-act-achieve-a-human-rights-prison-39119">at least A$80,000</a> to house each prisoner for a year. </p></li>
<li><p>Recurrent spending for each Victorian on prisons <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-victoria-is-leading-the-nation-backwards-38905">was $83.95</a> in 2011-12. </p></li>
<li><p>It costs around <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-south-australias-prisoner-numbers-soar-with-just-10-of-budget-for-rehab-38906">$180 million a year</a> to operate South Australia’s prisons.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-out-one-day-back-the-next-in-queensland-38989">Restrictive funding of alternatives</a> like community corrections in Queensland has implications for the success and utilisation of these programs.</p></li>
<li><p>In Western Australia, the average cost of keeping someone in prison is <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-lopsided-incarceration-rates-blight-west-38986">$342 a day</a>, compared to $43 for community service supervision.</p></li>
<li><p>In the ACT, at <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-can-act-achieve-a-human-rights-prison-39119">$394 per day</a>, prisoner costs are thought to be the highest in the country.</p></li>
<li><p>The Northern Territory <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-if-locking-em-up-is-the-goal-nts-a-success-39185">spent $500 million</a> on the construction of a prison with 1000 additional beds to house a prison population that is worryingly over-represented by Indigenous Australians.</p></li>
<li><p>In NSW, prisons are bursting at the seams, operating <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-prisoners-of-nsw-politics-and-perceptions-38985">9.4% above capacity</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These snapshots offer a “user friendly” picture of prison costs. But the recasting of total costs in these various ways is not without problems.</p>
<h2>What do we know about the cost of corrections?</h2>
<p>Prisons serve multiple purposes. Some of these purposes are relatively short-term and concrete in their objectives, such as the act of imprisonment itself. These are not without problems, but are relatively easy to cost.</p>
<p>Other objectives are longer-term and harder to define, such as the cost of prisons as a deterrent, or the costs of vocational programs over the longer term, or the cost of failures to rehabilitate and high rates of recidivism. These are much harder to cost. Despite <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120119200607/http:/www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/docs/breaking-the-cycle.pdf">their importance</a>, they have tended to be ignored in the cost data that is used within the realm of fiscally constrained policymaking.</p>
<p>In Australia, at least theoretically, the modern prison is cast as a correctional institution. As such, the importance and cost of its <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/0/6/B/%7B06BA8B79-E747-413E-A263-72FA37E42F6F%7Drpp80.pdf">rehabilitative role</a> is particularly relevant.</p>
<p>“Correcting” offenders and minimising rates of re-offending will always be a challenge. But rehabilitation involves equipping inmates with a variety of skills so they can successfully re-enter the community.</p>
<p>Inmates <a href="http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/publications.nsf/0/25246662bd3f6e20ca25721f00126e2d/$FILE/FINAL%20&%20INDEX.pdf">with family support</a> and educational opportunities, particularly those focused on <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/crm/61-80/crm065.html">vocational training</a>, are more successful at securing a crime-free future. Both require significant resources.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, tracking the costs of many of these programs is easier than monetising their benefits.</p>
<h2>Comparing costs</h2>
<p>If we start with the total cost of prisons in Australia, which was <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/recurring/report-on-government-services/2015/justice/corrective-services">$3.4 billion in 2013-14</a>, we can then cut this figure in a number of ways to draw inferences about relative efficiencies, performance and value for money. </p>
<p>From this, we can track whether the total cost has gone up or down over time. We can also calculate figures such as the cost per prisoner per day and the costs allocated to each prison per year based on its budget allocation.</p>
<p>Much of this data appears compelling and accurate – the figures are based on accounting numbers. But many don’t realise that the cost calculations produced by accountants are quite crude approximations, which are always the result of judgement, assumptions and estimations. These can also be highly politicised.</p>
<p>For example, the calculation of “total costs” and how these are allocated to different prisons and projects are based on a series of decisions. These decisions can distort the relative costs of one prison or program over another. The total cost of prisons in Australia is a reflection of the amount spent on prisons and prison-related services (such as health, vocational programs, transportation).</p>
<p>When we reduce this to a figure per prison, as an outsider, it is hard to determine which costs are allocated to which prison and for what reason.</p>
<p>For instance, how are the respective departmental overheads allocated to each prison? This problem is only amplified with the inclusion of <a href="http://media.wix.com/ugd/b629ee_d4ccf8879eb7ca3ff36b7153564a3fcf.pdf">private prison providers</a>.</p>
<p>The costs data should facilitate comparisons of relative performance, value for money and efficiency. But limitations on the quality of the data mean that, more often than not, they don’t.</p>
<p>If we are to come up with ways to facilitate equitable, efficient and effective prisons, then we need to know a lot more about how the costs of each prison are determined. This includes the effect of location, the impact of the age and design of prisons, and the experience profile of staff.</p>
<p>How well the data reflect the true cost of each prison or the sector should be a matter of significant concern to fiscally constrained governments, as they experiment with ways to meet the needs of a growing prison population, and to the public – who are largely convinced that “value for money” is <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/80f365e089726b75ca25708300191671/$FILE/Value%20for%20Money%20from%20NSW%20Correctional%20Centres%20Report.pdf">key to public policy</a>.</p>
<h2>The problem with costs</h2>
<p>Costs have clear policy relevance and should be part of public debate. But we also need to talk more openly about the cost information’s limitations in the public domain and the effect this has on the quality of debate.</p>
<p>While cost allocations will be determined by established practices and professional judgement, these change over time and are unavoidably political.</p>
<p>With this in mind, it would be unrealistic to suggest that we “perfect” the costing process. This would simply replace one set of assumptions with another.</p>
<p>We need to stop assuming that costs provide a neutral starting point to determine optimal policy. Instead, in complex policy settings like prisons, the best we can hope for is greater transparency to enable richer public discussion.</p>
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<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/40159/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Andrew 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>Prisons cost data should facilitate comparisons of relative performance, value for money and efficiency. But limitations on the quality of the data mean that, more often than not, they don’t.Jane Andrew, Associate Professor, University of Sydney Business School, University of SydneyLicensed 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>
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<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>
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<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/426102015-06-18T04:56:45Z2015-06-18T04:56:45ZBy freeing prisoners from cycle of crime, education cuts re-offending<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84999/original/image-20150615-26846-1xs923e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Education is the key to not re-offending.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</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 <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a> series.</em></p>
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<p>Teaching inside a prison takes patience. Not because the students are difficult or dull, they are not. On the contrary, you are unlikely to meet a more highly motivated and interesting group of adult learners. It does take time, however, to have your fingerprint scanned, to pass barefoot and beltless through the metal detectors, to have your personal identification, criminal history and biometric data checked. </p>
<p>A prison teacher also needs to be flexible. When visiting incarcerated students, be ready to roll with the unexpected. If you arrive on a family visits day, or during an emergency lockdown, or when students can’t make it to the education block, your own sense of time warps and stretches. </p>
<p>Before you know it, you have fallen into the grinding rhythms of the institution. You’re no longer sure if you’re very late or very early. Fortunately, no one blames you for this – the custodial staff nod knowingly and say “you’re on prison time now”.</p>
<p>In a prison, time is something to be dealt with, by any means necessary. Mental health is a pressing concern for most prisoners and education is a way to stay “sane”.</p>
<p>Incarcerated students often choose to study as a way to use their time productively and to have a sense of purpose and control over their future. They intensely value education as a way to rewrite their life story, to provide a positive example to their children and just to prove to themselves and the world that they can do it. </p>
<p>It is now widely accepted in Australia and in most parts of the world that <a href="http://rightnow.org.au/topics/education/can-prisoners-receive-quality-education-without-access-to-the-internet/">education also reduces recidivism rates</a>. Almost all Australian prisons, private and public, support and promote education programs as a way to improve prisoners’ employment opportunities upon release.</p>
<h2>Education or training for prisoners?</h2>
<p>Australian prisoners are often encouraged to undertake vocational training in areas like horticulture, hospitality and construction. Usually this includes input from accredited trainers on site. Prisoner access to higher education, however, tends to be more problematic. </p>
<p>Traditionally, incarcerated university students would receive their materials in the mail as distance education students. However, with the sector-wide move to online delivery of tertiary courses, incarcerated students, who have no internet access, are <a href="https://theconversation.com/offline-inmates-denied-education-and-skills-that-reduce-re-offending-38709">falling through the digital gaps</a>. </p>
<p>Access to higher education also varies greatly from prison to prison, with tertiary study becoming more difficult as security becomes tighter. When there is a public outcry around recidivism, it is usually in regard to repeat violent offenders or sex offenders. Some commentators and members of the public, vocal on social media, talk-back radio and other media forums, do not believe rehabilitation is possible for some repeat offenders and these attitudes shape government policy. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85000/original/image-20150615-26848-t8a16d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85000/original/image-20150615-26848-t8a16d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85000/original/image-20150615-26848-t8a16d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85000/original/image-20150615-26848-t8a16d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85000/original/image-20150615-26848-t8a16d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85000/original/image-20150615-26848-t8a16d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85000/original/image-20150615-26848-t8a16d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85000/original/image-20150615-26848-t8a16d.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">Many believe offenders can’t be rehabilitated.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most isolated of all incarcerated students are often those in “protection” prisons or protective security units within prisons. These prisoners, separated from other inmates for their own protection, are some of the most marginalised and reviled members of our society. As such they are often on the cutting edge of public debates about whether prisoners are deserving of higher education and other social goods. </p>
<p>The treatment of the most feared and demonised inmates is a test of how humane our society actually is and how far rehabilitation can be rolled out. Certainly in some protective custody (“protection”) and maximum security (“secure”) units, students do not have access to the computers, textbooks, teachers, tutors and resources they need to successfully complete university courses.</p>
<h2>A humanising and humane approach</h2>
<p>Technological access and technological literacy <a href="https://theconversation.com/offline-inmates-denied-education-and-skills-that-reduce-re-offending-38709">is increasingly important</a> for reducing recidivism. It is not, and is not intended to be, a substitute for good teaching.</p>
<p>Human contact with education officers, student peers and tertiary tutors is also an element of education valued highly by incarcerated students. Visiting tertiary tutors can provide not only a link with the outside world and new knowledge, but also an audience for new rehabilitated identities. </p>
<p>Approaches that recognise prisoners as human beings and provide opportunities for positive social interaction better prepare offenders for successful social re-integration when they are released.</p>
<p>Prison teachers learn quickly that they must build a sincere relationship of trust and respect with students, as whole persons, before the real work of education can begin. Good teaching, especially in a prison, requires being sensitive to the emotional life of the students and the social, cultural and psychological burdens they bear. </p>
<p>A whole-person approach recognises that students need an opportunity for reflection on their own values, beliefs and identities - to develop their own voice through writing and thinking about issues that matter to them. A humanities education is particularly important in this context, as it encourages prisoners to explore the human condition and humane values. </p>
<h2>Human beings or human capital?</h2>
<p>As Australian governments move to privatise and corporatise the business of incarceration, prisons, like other state institutions, are increasingly guided by economic principles and priorities. </p>
<p>Incarcerated students, like other students, are increasingly seen as “human capital” forced to fit the needs of industry. While employment is certainly central to successful re-integration, education in prisons cannot be limited to vocational training. </p>
<p>A broad education in the humanities, which facilitates social and self-understanding, may be just as necessary to successful social re-integration as training in trade skills. Humanistic teaching, characterised by human empathy and a sincere desire to help the student develop as a person, is far more effective in the long term than mere technical training.</p>
<p>While society has a right and indeed an obligation to incapacitate its most dangerous citizens, the problem is that the pains of imprisonment and negative consequences of social isolation continue long after a prisoner is released. As most prisoners, even those convicted of the most serious offences, will eventually be released, the focus needs to be on successful re-entry and social re-integration.</p>
<p>Education, particularly education in the humanities, is an important tool in this process. In my experience, protection prisoners are particularly aware of the power of education to rewrite life scripts and provide hope for a better future.</p>
<h2>Prisoners don’t need more hard lessons, they need knowledge and skills</h2>
<p>On social media and in the mainstream popular press, populist commentary frequently calls for getting tougher on criminals, as well as getting tough on crime. Recently circulated Facebook memes, for example, sardonically advocate locking the elderly poor in prison, where they will supposedly receive better access to free meals, medication, electricity, exercise equipment and education. </p>
<p>The implication of this satire is that prisoners receive better treatment than they deserve. This popular “get tough on prisoners” approach rests on the assumption that prisons are for punishment not rehabilitation, and that those who break the law have forfeited their rights to such social goods and privileges. </p>
<p>The problem with this “prisons are for punishment” approach is that it actually doesn’t work to deter criminals or reduce crime rates. On the contrary, the get tough on criminals approach contributes to an overarching culture of brutalisation. It does not make society a safer place, it makes society a more inhumane place.</p>
<p>A humane approach recognises that all human beings are to some extent products of their environment. Further harsh treatment of prisoners, institutional punishment and brutalisation is not going to solve the problems that put them there in the first place. </p>
<p>Offenders need adequate community support and substantial personal resilience to successfully re-enter society upon their release. They don’t need more hard lessons. They need a way to break the cycle and education is the key.</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/42610/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Hopkins 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>Education is one of the most important factors in giving prisoners options upon release, reducing the chance of re-offending.Susan Hopkins, Lecturer in Communication, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/390442015-06-17T20:21:10Z2015-06-17T20:21:10ZElectronic innovation can help fix an archaic, crowded prison system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79014/original/image-20150423-29722-1fj56l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Electronic monitoring typically involves fitting offenders with tamper-proof bracelets to monitor whether they are abiding by conditions imposed on them.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisyarzab/6510121061/in/photolist-aVh5bz-4v83YW-4v3Sj4-4v3RJR-cMbU3w-nf2i45-4amGfd-8kpoGi-4HdDs8-aiAn2y-4v3YMT-bHhuYM-bkL9M5-p78PLA-gVPq7P-nWQez9-nEsz8y-9QQFWD-aEVK1S-aBAp5J-6V2B4u-cAxjXC-f5sd5J-8U32Zt-7kqRhR-gSYT95-hwPAnG-dpN58X-gfyrTF-p78PMN-p78PHu-p78PNu-bFa7fT-xB8uL-8v2EYn-aa42qS-dPW92n-drcKX2">Flickr/Chris Yarzab</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</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 <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a> series.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Victoria’s prisons are reported to be <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-15/victorian-prisons-the-most-violent-in-australia/6319186">the most violent in the country</a>, as an overcrowded system struggles to house a growing prison population. Prison officers are reportedly assaulted every three days and inmate fights occur daily. Prison guards are to trial capsicum spray in response.</p>
<p>This should not come as a surprise. The Victorian Auditor-General <a href="http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/publications/20121128-Prisons/20121128-Prisons.pdf">found in 2012</a> that the system was near capacity. Last year, the Ombudsman <a href="https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/getattachment/2998b6e6-491a-4dfe-b081-9d86fe4d4921">warned</a> that violence was a natural consequence of overcrowding.</p>
<p>Imprisonment rates across Australia have risen dramatically in recent times. In the <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-victoria-is-leading-the-nation-backwards-38905">traditionally low-imprisonment state</a> of Victoria, the prison population grew by <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/publications/victorias-prison-population-2002-2012">38% in the ten years from 2002 to 2012</a>. The growth accelerated between 2009 and 2014, with the number of prisoners increasing by <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorian-prison-numbers-surged-under-napthine-20141211-1258jw.html">40% in five years</a>.</p>
<p>“Law and order” political agendas have reduced judicial sentencing discretion, <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/news-media/news/phasing-out-suspended-sentences-complete-today">phased out</a> suspended sentences and restricted the availability of bail and parole. We built more prisons, but even then <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/prisoners-moved-into-shipping-containers-20140106-30d23.html">shipping containers</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-16/violence-and-escapes-in-victorian-prisons-linked-to-overcrowding/6322620">fold-out beds</a> were needed to warehouse the overflow.</p>
<p>Penal populism has trumped evidence-based policy. The previous Coalition government seemingly disregarded its own Sentencing Advisory Council’s conclusions about the <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/publications/does-imprisonment-deter">ineffectiveness</a> of prison in reducing crime.</p>
<p>Local statistics also run counter to encouraging international trends. These suggest that the world’s 200-year honeymoon with the prison may be ending.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/a-rare-opportunity-on-criminal-justice.html?_&_r=1">In the US</a>, the global financial crisis brought into sharp relief the costs of hyper-incarceration, especially of African-Americans. Suddenly, even conservatives questioned why housing felons should divert funds away from schools and roads. The mounting evidence that prison is ineffective in deterring and rehabilitating criminals, and that incarceration itself may increase the risk of re-offending, was finally heeded.</p>
<p>Even in states <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/best-state-in-america-texas-where-both-crime-and-incarceration-rates-are-falling/2014/12/05/e0a0f4a8-7b07-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html">such as Texas</a>, prison numbers fell. In 2011, that state <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional/texas-first-prison-is-closing-1/nRdBp/">closed a prison</a> for the first time in its history.</p>
<p>The new Victorian Labor government has tentatively signalled the <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/investigations/jury-out-on-labor-prison-plan-20150123-12w1rn.html">need for change</a>. Yet it too clearly fears electoral backlash and has conceded that prison populations are likely to continue to rise.</p>
<p>Both sides of politics have invested huge political capital touting the prison as the solution to crime. The Australian public responded too well and the punitive cycle escalated. </p>
<p>How do we now un-sell this expensive, ineffective and cruel form of punishment?</p>
<h2>Punitiveness and the national identity</h2>
<p>The pull of punitivism is a legacy of Australia’s colonial history. As Robert Hughes argued in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fatal_Shore">The Fatal Shore</a>, in the early days of the colony any infraction of the rules was viciously punished, and this knee-jerk punitiveness maintains its hold in contemporary Australian discourse about punishment.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/">Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody</a>, for instance, drew connections between Australia’s early dispossession of Indigenous people and their high levels of incarceration. Punitiveness is also evident in offshore processing of asylum seekers in prison-like conditions (perhaps not surprising, given the employment of former prison staff in the centres) <a href="http://unhcr.org.au/unhcr/images/2013-11-26%20Report%20of%20UNHCR%20Visit%20to%20Manus%20Island%20PNG%2023-25%20October%202013.pdf">deemed inhumane</a> by the United Nations.</p>
<p>In Australia, dubious utilitarian ideologies about general deterrence, with imprisonment its ready touchstone, prevail. In pandering to public punitiveness, politicians have forgotten a countervailing strand in Australia’s history and national identity: innovation.</p>
<h2>Australia and penal innovation</h2>
<p>The great English judge, Lord Denning, was once asked about innovative sentencing options. He noted that the last major innovation was probably “transportation”. That, he quipped, had worked out rather well.</p>
<p>In the 18th century, Australia was the great social experiment. The world watched to see if this society of convicts could fashion a new social order.</p>
<p>Acute labour shortages were the impetus for another innovative sentencing option, the <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=oSBcAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">Ticket of Leave scheme</a>. This allowed convicts to complete their sentences working and living in the community. The scheme kept the fledgling colonial economy afloat and is reputedly the forerunner of parole and probation schemes internationally.</p>
<p>Australian contributions continue to be influential. John Braithwaite’s ideas about re-integrative shaming – a shift away from punitive social control to approaches that shame the offender but simultaneously offer re-integration into the community — have spawned an entire “alternative” system of restorative justice processes all over the world.</p>
<p>Appeal to Australia’s nationalist pride in its history as an innovator may untie the prison’s shackles. While far from perfect, the emerging technology of electronic monitoring may present a publicly acceptable alternative to prison.</p>
<h2>The rise of electronic monitoring</h2>
<p>Electronic monitoring was <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/05/22/314874232/the-history-of-electronic-monitoring-devices">initially developed</a> as a behavioural-modification tool in experimental and clinical psychology. The technology has been applied to criminal justice since 1983, when a New Mexican judge, inspired by a Spider-Man comic, ordered its use to track probationers.</p>
<p>Nowadays, electronic monitoring takes various forms across the world. These typically involve offenders being fitted with tamper-proof bracelets. The devices monitor whether offenders are abiding by conditions, such as geographical constraints, curfews, attending work or study, or abstaining from drugs or alcohol.</p>
<p>Electronic monitoring can be used pre-trial, as a primary sentence or post-sentence. It operates in <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/conferences/other/smith_russell/2010-07-brcss.pdf">each form in Australia</a>.</p>
<p>To date, however, electronic monitoring has not really been countenanced as a legitimate, large-scale alternative to divert offenders away from prison. Victoria’s brief use of home detention initially aimed to do this, but public criticism that it was “too soft” led to its removal from the statute books in 2012. It remains an optional condition that may be imposed under a <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/num_act/saossaoma201332o2013713/s25.html">community correction order</a>.</p>
<p>Any alternative to prison must be seen to satisfy sentencing’s twin <a href="http://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/about-sentencing/sentencing-process/sentencing-principles-purposes-factors">objectives</a> of punishing offenders and protecting the community. The research on electronic monitoring’s impact on crime is still inconclusive, but the indications are that, in many cases, it likely meets these purposes as well as, or even better than, prison. </p>
<p>In its <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VSCA/2014/342.html">first guideline judgment</a>, Victoria’s Court of Appeal recently recognised that even in cases of relatively serious offending, properly conditioned sentences served in the community can both appropriately punish offenders and protect the public.</p>
<p>On its face, electronic monitoring also has lower operational costs than prison. However, once rehabilitation services are factored in, savings are more properly couched as reducing the costs of re-offending.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79024/original/image-20150423-10331-1cig2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79024/original/image-20150423-10331-1cig2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79024/original/image-20150423-10331-1cig2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79024/original/image-20150423-10331-1cig2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79024/original/image-20150423-10331-1cig2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79024/original/image-20150423-10331-1cig2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79024/original/image-20150423-10331-1cig2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Electronic monitoring technology isn’t foolproof but it is an advance on the ‘one size fits all’ punishment of prison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.omnilink.com/electronic-monitoring/">From www.omnilink.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Electronic monitoring, like all punishment, is imperfect. Failure is built into any system that tries to control and regulate human behaviour. </p>
<p>The technology is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11491937">prone to failure</a>. There will be inevitable scandals when human cunning and system break downs lead to spectacular breaches. Electronic monitoring also presents significant net-widening and net-strengthening challenges (that is, more people are subjected to intensive forms of criminal justice control).</p>
<p>These negative effects are hard to overcome and any policy and research agenda must address these. But a “one size fits all” approach to punishment, like prison, is unacceptable. </p>
<h2>Is prison’s time nearly up?</h2>
<p>It is time for a more open dialogue about the risks and limitations of all forms of punishment. We need calibrated and nuanced community-based options to meet the specific circumstances of each offender and their crime. A bipartisan preparedness to raise the level of public debate about the full gamut of options should replace the invocation of prison as a “quick fix” for both crime and electoral popularity.</p>
<p>The days of the prison, an 18th-century industrial institution, as the dominant form of punishment are probably numbered. Electronic monitoring is one option more compatible with the 21st-century virtual age, in which containment and isolation need not be physical to be effective.</p>
<p>Jeremy Bentham, the architect of the prison and the great-grandfather of utilitarianism, understood that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… all punishment is mischief: all punishment in itself is evil. Upon the principle of utility, if it ought at all to be admitted, it ought only to be admitted in as far as it promises to exclude some greater evil.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For better or worse, electronic monitoring probably is our best, albeit imperfect, opportunity to reframe a public dialogue about the purposes, risks and relative costs of punishment.</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/39044/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>The days of prison, an 18th-century industrial institution, as the justice system’s dominant form of punishment may be numbered. Electronic monitoring of offenders is one promising alternative.Kathy Laster, Director, Sir Zelman Cowen Centre, Victoria UniversityRyan Kornhauser, Research Assistant, Victoria UniversityLicensed 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/401582015-06-16T20:25:25Z2015-06-16T20:25:25ZSwift and certain sanctions: does Australia have room for HOPE?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84801/original/image-20150612-11433-jt1s32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Judge Steven Alm pioneered the HOPE project, the first of scores of swift and certain sanction programmes in the US.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkNvaedALcU&index=9&list=PL794bs5JErfCzA0wfzM7NXAQs1dtBDmK3">Youtube/PBS screenshot</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>At a time of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">increasing prison numbers</a>, could <a href="http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/articles/2014-08-can-swift-and-certain-sanctions-fix-the-criminal-jus">swift and certain sanction</a> (SAC) programmes be a desirable model for Australia?</p>
<p>The best-known programme of this nature is Hawaii’s Opportunity with Probation Enforcement (<a href="http://hopehawaii.net/">HOPE</a>). It received an <a href="http://www.civilbeat.com/2013/05/harvard-praises-hawaiis-hope-probation-program/">Innovation in American Government Award</a> from Harvard University in 2013 and an <a href="http://www.courts.state.hi.us/news_and_reports/featured_news/2014/08/criminal_justice_program_award_2014.html">Outstanding Criminal Justice Program Award</a> from the National Criminal Justice Association in 2014. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law-july-dec13-hawaiihope_11-24/">Judge Steven Alm</a> launched the pilot programme in 2004. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VoG7NUIJfJw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Hawaii State Judge Steven Alm explains the HOPE probation programme.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>HOPE adopts a “good parenting model”‘ and works as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The judge gives a 15-20 minute <a href="http://www.nij.gov/topics/corrections/community/drug-offenders/%20documents/229023-appendix-2-example-warning-hearing.pdf">“warning hearing”</a> to a group of HOPE participants.</p></li>
<li><p>Offenders are told that they can count on a short jail sanction for every violation.</p></li>
<li><p>Offenders are given a colour code and must call a hotline every morning to hear which colour has been selected. </p></li>
<li><p>If their colour is chosen, they must appear at the probation office before 2pm that day for a drug test. Compliance and a negative test results in the assignment of a new colour associated with less regular testing.</p></li>
<li><p>If an offender fails to appear, a bench warrant is issued and served immediately.</p></li>
<li><p>Offenders who fail the drug test are arrested immediately and brought before a judge within 72 hours.</p></li>
<li><p>Offenders who are found to have violated their probation (by missing an appointment or returning a positive drug test) are immediately sentenced to a short jail stay, with sentences increasing for successive violations. </p></li>
<li><p>Drug treatment is provided for those who request it or who cannot stop using drugs or alcohol on their own. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Evaluations of HOPE</h2>
<p>The National Institute of Justice (<a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/229023.pdf">NIJ</a>) funded a randomised-controlled trial evaluation comparing 330 high-risk drug offenders on HOPE with 163 similar offenders on standard probation. Compared with the control group, HOPE offenders were:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>55% less likely to be arrested for a new crime;</p></li>
<li><p>53% less likely to have their probation revoked;</p></li>
<li><p>72% less likely to test positive for illegal drugs; and</p></li>
<li><p>61% less likely to miss appointments with their probation officers.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Offenders on HOPE also spent 48% fewer days in prison. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/229023.pdf">process evaluation</a> found that probation officers, offenders and defence lawyers were enthusiastic about the programme. However, prosecutors and court employees were less pleased, with court staff reporting increased workloads. </p>
<h2>Other SAC programmes</h2>
<p>In 2012, the <a href="http://www.nij.gov/journals/269/pages/hope.aspx">NIJ and Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)</a> selected four sites across the US to replicate HOPE. They engaged an independent research agency to conduct process, outcome and cost-assessment evaluations, using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randomized_controlled_trial">randomised controlled trials</a>. This research is expected to be finalised this year. The NIJ has also funded research to examine the long-term impact of HOPE. </p>
<p>A programme based on HOPE in Alaska found that participants <a href="http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/forum/28/2-3summerfall2011/c_pace.html">reduced their drug use</a> (positive tests fell from 25% to 9%). South Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Project developed independently of HOPE, with over 17,000 participants between 2005 and 2010. An <a href="http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/84399649/efficacy-frequent-monitoring-swift-certain-modest-sanctions-violations-insights-from-south-dakotas-24-7-sobriety-project">evaluation</a> found that it led to a 12% reduction in repeat arrests for drink driving and a 9% reduction in arrests for domestic violence. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vmuvD4DAeA8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Beau Kilmer, co-director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Centre, discusses the 24/7 Sobriety Project.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Currently, <a href="http://hopehawaii.net/assets/sac-in-oz-%282015%29.pdf">160 SAC programmes are running in 21 states</a> across the US. Since 2012, all offenders in <a href="http://www.corrections.com/news/article/36939-replicating-hope-can-others-do-it-as-well-as-hawaii-">Washington State</a> subject to supervision in the community (about 15,000 people) are monitored under a SAC model. </p>
<p>In the UK, the Conservative government announced its intention to introduce “Fast Sanctions and Testing” (<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11536622/Petty-criminals-face-two-nights-in-the-cells-under-Conservative-justice-plans.html">FAST</a>) as part of its election policy.</p>
<p>In Australia, former Victorian Labor attorney-general Rob Hulls recently called for <a href="http://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/media-releases/2015/march/family-violence-report-aims-to-interrupt-cycle/">“flash incarceration”</a> of domestic violence perpetrators who breach their orders.</p>
<p>According to Judge Alm: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>HOPE is one of those rare criminal justice strategies which has few natural enemies. Prosecutors and conservatives tend to like its accountability and potential to save money. Defence counsel and liberals tend to appreciate how HOPE helps defendants to succeed on probation and avoid going to prison.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Criticisms of HOPE</h2>
<p>In spite of their promise, programmes of this nature raise a number of concerns. </p>
<p>One <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11292-012-9168-6#page-1">evaluation</a> suggests that the benefits last only as long as the testing and sanctions. Therefore, such programmes may not lead to lasting behavioural change. </p>
<p>Professor Michael Tonry has described these programmes as <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2329849">“pernicious”</a>, saying that they:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… do little except offer legal threats of what will happen if conditions are violated rather than attempt to address the circumstances in the offender’s life that brought him or her into court. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, Judge Alm has clarified that HOPE has included treatment and evidence-based principles from its inception, as these are standard components of probation in Hawaii:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>HOPE helped to create the environment … where the [probation officers] could more effectively work with the offenders on their other risk factors. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Would HOPE work in Australia?</h2>
<p>There are questions about the extent to which a programme developed overseas <a href="http://hopehawaii.net/assets/sac-in-oz-%282015%29.pdf">could be adopted</a> successfully here. The American and Australian criminal justice systems have significant differences. In particular, the model eschews judicial discretion and the <a href="http://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/judgment-summaries/2005/hca25-2005-05-18.pdf">instinctive synthesis</a> that underpins our sentencing framework. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84803/original/image-20150612-11421-105nj7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84803/original/image-20150612-11421-105nj7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84803/original/image-20150612-11421-105nj7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84803/original/image-20150612-11421-105nj7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84803/original/image-20150612-11421-105nj7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84803/original/image-20150612-11421-105nj7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84803/original/image-20150612-11421-105nj7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84803/original/image-20150612-11421-105nj7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Arresting Incarceration, Don Weatherburn sees the HOPE model as one possible way of reducing sky-high rates of Indigenous imprisonment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://aiatsis.gov.au/publications/products/arresting-incarceration-pathways-out-indigenous-imprisonment">AIATSIS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One Australian <a href="http://www.westlaw.com.au/maf/wlau/app/document?docguid=I74e1eb5b557e11e38fa3f057ed117a82&isTocNav=true&tocDs=AUNZ_AU_JOURNALS_TOC&startChunk=1&endChunk=1">sentencing expert</a> has also identified the issue of availability of prison beds and the due process implications of subjecting an offender to incarceration without a court order. In spite of this, she concluded that “trialling a 24/7 type of programme … is also worth serious consideration”. </p>
<p>The implications for Indigenous offenders would need to be considered carefully to ensure this model would not further exacerbate their <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-04/number-of-indigenous-australians-in-prison-a-catastrophe/5945504">over-representation in our prisons</a>. However, Don Weatherburn has expressed cautious support for HOPE in his book on <a href="http://aiatsis.gov.au/publications/products/arresting-incarceration-pathways-out-indigenous-imprisonment">pathways out of Indigenous imprisonment</a>.</p>
<p>A former White House Drug Chief to presidents Nixon and Ford, Robert DuPont, has gone so far as to describe HOPE as <a href="http://hopehawaii.net/assets/sac-in-oz-%282015%29.pdf">“revolutionary”</a>, as it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… provides a new paradigm for successfully managing offenders and is fully scaleable to the entire criminal justice system. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>If a HOPE-style project were to be developed in Australia, a balance would need to be struck between adherence to the core tenets of the model and ensuring the programme is appropriate for the Australian justice system and informed by consultation with relevant stakeholders. </p>
<p>In addition, funding would need to be allocated to ensure all aspects of the programme run effectively (for example, additional resources for court staff). It is also critical that any pilot programme be independently evaluated to ensure it is meeting its objectives.</p>
<p>The Australian prison population has grown to <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/allprimarymainfeatures/9B3F80C43A73AF6CCA2568B7001B4595?opendocument">unprecedented numbers</a>. Research indicates that <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/mr/1-20/09.html">two-thirds of police detainees</a> test positive to at least one drug, not including alcohol. Furthermore, <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/tandi/421-440/tandi439.html">nearly half of all police detainees</a> attribute their offending to drugs and/or alcohol.</p>
<p>Meaningful crime prevention requires an ongoing focus on such issues as drug and mental health treatment, housing, education and employment. SAC programmes are clearly not a panacea, but it may be time for Australia to see if they can be part of the solution.</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/40158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorana Bartels receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She has previously received research funding from the ACT Government to undertake research on swift and certain sanction programs.</span></em></p>The success of probation programmes based on swift and certain sanctions has led to more than 160 such schemes operating in the US. Australia should consider whether the model might work here too.Lorana Bartels, Associate Professor, School of Law and Justice, University of CanberraLicensed 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>
<figcaption>
<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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<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.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/399992015-04-26T19:30:50Z2015-04-26T19:30:50ZOur $3b-a-year system is flying blind in supporting ex-prisoners<p><em>This article is one of several following up The Conversation’s series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a>, which provides snapshots of imprisonment trends in each state and territory.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Nobody knows how many people get out of prison in Australia each year. This fact is so striking that it bears repetition. Despite recurring investment of more than <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/recurring/report-on-government-services/2015/justice/corrective-services">$3 billion a year in our correctional systems</a>, we simply cannot determine how many people move through those systems each year.</p>
<p>It’s not that this information is difficult to find, or that it’s not publicly available. We simply don’t know.</p>
<h2>Understanding throughput is important</h2>
<p>For other large, state-based and publicly funded systems, such as hospitals and schools, information on throughput is readily available, and rightly so. These systems are funded by the taxpayer, for the taxpayer, and routine public reporting is critical to ensuring transparency and accountability. </p>
<p>Information on throughput is also critical to service planning: if we don’t know how many people use the service, or what these people look like, how can we possibly ensure that the service is appropriate in scale and character?</p>
<p>Yet we can only estimate how many people move through our prisons each year. We don’t have even a basic demographic description of these people. This information is important because almost everyone who goes to prison comes back out again, and effective support during the transition from prison to community is critical to preventing re-offending. </p>
<p>Effective transitional support can also reduce the risk of other poor outcomes that disproportionately affect ex-prisoners, such as preventable death, the spread of infectious disease and expensive, avoidable hospitalisation. </p>
<p>Effective support for people coming out of prison is therefore critical to public safety, public health and the public purse. But we don’t know how many people in Australia need this sort of transitional support.</p>
<h2>What <em>do</em> we know?</h2>
<p>It’s not that we don’t know anything about the people we incarcerate: for well over a decade the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has produced a <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4512.0">quarterly publication</a> that reports how many people were in prison on an average day, broken down by basic demographic characteristics. For example, we know that Indigenous Australians are over-represented in our prisons by an age-adjusted factor of 13. The ABS also produces an <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4517.0">annual publication</a> reporting on the number and characteristics of people in prison on June 30 of each year.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding the redundancy in these two publications, so far so good. The problem is, people being released from prison look different to those in prison, and there are a lot more of them. How can this be?</p>
<p>For the purposes of illustration, let’s consider our hospitals. According to the <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129546922">Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)</a>, in 2012-13 there were about 86,300 hospital beds in Australia and for the 42% of patients who stayed in hospital overnight, the average length of stay was just 5.6 days. Because of this staggering throughput, there were almost 9.4 million hospital separations – when someone is discharged from hospital – in the 2012-13 financial year. This is more than 100 times the number of hospital beds, which is a pretty good proxy for the number of people in hospital on the average day.</p>
<p>Now let’s consider our prisons. Across the country we have almost 34,000 people in prison on the average day and we’re spending billions building more prison beds, at a rate well in excess of population growth. Prisons are, by definition, a growth industry. </p>
<p>The average expected length of stay for sentenced prisoners is 1.8 years, but for those on remand – around one in four prisoners – the average length of stay is just three months. Almost two in five of those released from prison return within two years, most of them within the first year. Those with unresolved substance use and mental health problems are more likely to return to custody.</p>
<p>So how many “prison separations” do we have each year in Australia? How many people does this represent? We don’t know.</p>
<p>In 2012, the AIHW asked the states and territories to provide this information, for inclusion in a report on the <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129543948">health of Australia’s prisoners</a>. On June 30 of that year there were 29,236 prisoners in Australia. Based on the information it received, the AIHW estimated that 33,751 individuals – 15% greater than the average daily number in prison – were released during the 2011-12 financial year.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this estimate was hobbled by the fact that one jurisdiction was unable to provide a count of either receptions or releases, while another provided a count of separations rather than individuals.</p>
<h2>What did our research find?</h2>
<p>More recently, we attempted to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.12346/abstract">estimate this figure</a> by extrapolating from detailed throughput data provided by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. After accounting for demographic differences between the jurisdictions, we estimated that the number of people released from prison each year in Australia is around 25% greater than the daily number in prison. Applied to the most recent ABS statistics, this equates to an estimated 42,239 persons released from prison in 2013-14 – 8,448 more than the “number of prisoners” reported by the ABS.</p>
<p>Perhaps more importantly, we found that the characteristics of people being released from prison differ meaningfully from those in prison. Those being released were disproportionately young, Indigenous and female. For every young Indigenous woman in prison on the average day, we estimated that about 3.7 young Indigenous women were being released from prison each year.</p>
<p>Is this dramatic over-representation of particularly vulnerable people taken into account in the planning and funding of transitional programs for prisoners in Australia? It seems unlikely.</p>
<h2>Fix the data to fix the system</h2>
<p>So what needs to be done? First, an appropriate national body, probably the ABS, needs to commit to annual reporting of prison throughput in Australia. This should include at least the basic demographic characteristics of those released. It’s not rocket science, and would for the first time provide a platform for considering whether transitional programs for prisoners are appropriate in scale and character. </p>
<p>Then comes the hard bit: bringing evidence-based transitional programs to scale and ensuring that they are appropriate to the target population. With a rapidly increasing incarceration rate, enormous capital and recurring expenditure on the prison system, and predictably poor health, economic and offending outcomes for those released from prison, it’s about time we stopped flying blind in service planning for ex-prisoners.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Alex Avery was a co-author of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.12346/full">the research paper</a> published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, on which this article is based.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read the other articles in the State of Imprisonment series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Kinner is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow. He receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council, and co-convenes the Justice Health Special Interest Group in the Public Health Association of Australia.</span></em></p>We simply don’t know how many prisoners are released each year, nor their demographic characteristics. As a result, we cannot tailor services that would reduce ex-prisoners’ risks of re-offending.Stuart Kinner, Professor, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/387092015-04-24T01:43:11Z2015-04-24T01:43:11ZOffline inmates denied education and skills that reduce re-offending<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74576/original/image-20150312-13508-1776c01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Education has been found to reduce prisoners' re-offending, but how can they gain the skills they need without the internet?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/emiliano-iko/4626758148">Flickr/I K O</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is one of several following up The Conversation’s series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a>, which provides snapshots of imprisonment trends in each state and territory.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Technology has found its way into virtually every aspect of our daily lives. But for those who don’t have access to the internet and other technologies, how are they expected to keep up? One group for whom this may present a problem is prison inmates. </p>
<p>Technology in prison is <a href="http://simpsoncenter.org/projects/public-humanities-scholarship/transformative-education-behind-bars">highly restricted</a>. But, once outside prison, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_literacy">digital literacy skills</a> — the awareness of, knowledge about and ability to select and use digital tools — are necessary to function effectively in 21st-century society.</p>
<h2>Rehabilitation through education</h2>
<p>Following their release, many offenders face significant barriers to entering the workforce. Recent research suggests that <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/230260/11-828-making-prisons-work-skills-for-rehabilitation.pdf">nearly half</a> (47%) of prisoners have no formal qualifications, compared to 15% among similar age groups in the general population. </p>
<p>Only <a href="http://rightnow.org.au/topics/education/can-prisoners-receive-quality-education-without-access-to-the-internet/">14% of Australian prisoners</a> have completed year 12, compared to 63% of the general population. These figures are even more dire for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners.</p>
<p>As of 2014, there were <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4517.0">33,791 prisoners in Australia</a> and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders represent 27% of the full-time adult prison population. This is a grim statistic given they make up approximately <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/indigenous-observatory/health-and-welfare/">2.5%</a> of the general population.</p>
<p>Perhaps most alarming is that <a href="http://www.academia.edu/6860179/Providing_simulated_online_and_mobile_learning_experiences_in_a_prison_education_setting_Lessons_learned_from_the_PLEIADES_pilot_project">56%</a> of prisoners will re-offend.</p>
<p>A 2008 study in the US estimated that <a href="https://ischool.uw.edu/feature-stories/linking-locked-ischool-student-investigates-digital-literacy-behind-bars">one in every 100 adults</a> is behind bars and more than 40% will return to prison following their release. Rates of recidivism are as high as 60% in the UK.</p>
<p>But for prisoners undertaking post-secondary education programs, rates of recidivism are considerably lower. In <a href="https://ischool.uw.edu/feature-stories/linking-locked-ischool-student-investigates-digital-literacy-behind-bars">Norway</a>, where internet access is permitted in inmates’ cells, recidivism rates are as low as 20%. In New Zealand, educational programs are helping to <a href="http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/Wellington12/2012/images/custom/farley,_helen_-_bridging_the_digital.pdf">reduce recidivism</a> by anywhere between 8% and 11%.</p>
<p>However, higher education institutions are moving almost exclusively to online delivery of courses and few universities will offer an education to incarcerated students because it is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-30/hope-new-tertiary-program-in-prisons-help-stop-recidivism/5634620">difficult and time-consuming</a>.</p>
<p>This raises serious issues <a href="http://www.academia.edu/6860179/Providing_simulated_online_and_mobile_learning_experiences_in_a_prison_education_setting_Lessons_learned_from_the_PLEIADES_pilot_project">in Australia</a>, as in most parts of the world, where most jurisdictions do not permit inmates to access the internet. As a result, we are faced with a situation in which prisoners could miss out entirely on the chance to study.</p>
<p>Although <a href="http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/Wellington12/2012/images/custom/farley,_helen_-_bridging_the_digital.pdf">traditional forms</a> of educational delivery using hard-copy materials have been largely successful, they do not allow incarcerated students to develop the digital literacy skills required to function in today’s society.</p>
<h2>Education initiatives</h2>
<p>Every day, thousands of inmates are released into the outside world —a hyper-connected, digital society that may be unrecognisable. Many will not have the digital skills they need to secure employment following their release from prison. This increases the likelihood that they will re-offend.</p>
<p>A number of initiatives are underway that aim to equip prisoners with skills they will need to make them attractive to future employers.</p>
<p>In the UK, the Open University is providing courses via the <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/about/offender-learning/data-and-developments/virtual-campus">Virtual Campus</a>, a secure network accessible by most prisons, with the aim of providing a whole higher education curriculum for prisoners.</p>
<p>Closer to home, the <a href="http://www.acea.org.au/Content/2009%20Papers/Koudstaal_2009.pdf">Tasmanian Prison Service</a> developed a secure network to give incarcerated students access to Moodle - the learning management system used by some institutions. </p>
<p>At the <a href="http://www.parliament.nz/resource/0000177634">Alexander Maconochie Centre</a> in the ACT, computers are available in educational centres and in most cells prisoners are allowed to access approved websites containing educational materials and legal resources. This is the only prison in Australia that permits direct access to the internet.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.usq.edu.au/news-events/News/2013/03/prison-trial">University of Southern Queensland</a> is trialing the use of e-learning technologies (tablet computers and a version of the learning management system) that are independent of the internet but still enable students to access courses electronically. </p>
<p>The aim is to give incarcerated students a comparable learning experience to non-incarcerated students and facilitate the development of digital skills that will enhance their employability. The trial is being rolled out across Australia in 2016.</p>
<h2>Beyond the prison walls</h2>
<p>The increasing reliance on mobile and digital devices for learning further excludes prisoners from access to education. But the delivery of courses via the internet also <a href="http://www.academia.edu/6860179/Providing_simulated_online_and_mobile_learning_experiences_in_a_prison_education_setting_Lessons_learned_from_the_PLEIADES_pilot_project">affects people</a> living in rural and remote communities, people from low socio-economic backgrounds and those in the developing world where internet access is simply not available. </p>
<p>This is food for thought given that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Internet_usage">61%</a> of the world’s population is unable to access the internet.</p>
<p>The technical and educational initiatives above give students without internet access, including incarcerated students, the opportunity to benefit from the advantages afforded by digital technologies in <a href="http://www.usq.edu.au/news-events/News/2013/03/prison-trial">learning and teaching</a>.</p>
<p>With prisons becoming increasingly overcrowded as a consequence of the “tough on crime” policies of many politicians, we should be looking at ways of reducing recidivism through providing quality education that adequately prepares prisoners for the outside world.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read the other articles in the State of Imprisonment series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38709/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Farley receives funding from the Australian Government Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program for the Making the Connection project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Antonio 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>Education has been found to reduce prisoners’ re-offending, but how can they be properly educated today without internet access?Amy Antonio, Lecturer, University of Southern QueenslandHelen Farley, Associate Professor (Digital Futures), University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/400112015-04-23T20:20:53Z2015-04-23T20:20:53ZGood mental health care in prisons must begin and end in the community<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79030/original/image-20150423-3083-33anbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Entry to prison presents an opportunity to identify mental illnesses and provide treatment that will continue after release.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-12694777/stock-photo-worried-man-side-view.html?src=klMkBco2rCTb5tzoA6xi4w-1-7">nando viciano/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People with mental illnesses are greatly overrepresented in our prisons. Prisoners are <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/prisoner-health/mental-health/">two to three times as likely</a> as those in the community to have a mental illness and are ten to 15 times more likely to have a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/10.1111/j.1742-9544.2012.00088.x/abstract">psychotic disorder</a>. Our research <a href="http://link.springer.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/article/10.1007/s00127-010-0256-5">suggests</a> one in three people taken into police custody are likely to be receiving psychiatric treatment at the time. If you include those with a substance misuse disorder, the numbers increase even further. </p>
<p>Prisoners with mental illnesses often do not adapt well to prison. They are more likely to be at risk for suicide and to present management difficulties for prison staff.</p>
<p>A high percentage of prisoners are on remand awaiting sentence and most receive relatively short sentences, so we need to consider the continuity of mental health care from the community, through the period of incarceration and back in the community upon release. </p>
<p>To this end, entry into the justice system can be viewed as a public health opportunity to identify those with mental illnesses and provide treatment that will continue upon release to the community.</p>
<p>Better identifying and addressing these mental health needs not only helps those receiving care and their families, it may also reduce incarceration rates, benefiting the whole community.</p>
<h2>Better screening and identification</h2>
<p>There are <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/E/B/4/%7BEB4E29C4-4390-41C6-8EEF-93AB042C6BFC%7Dtandi334.pdf">many entry points</a> to the justice system. At each point, a mechanism is required to identify those with a serious mental illness. </p>
<p>Most importantly, people entering police custody and prisons must be screened to identify symptoms of mental illness. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for mental illnesses to be first identified on admission to prison. For those with previously diagnosed disorders, their treatment needs must be identified to ensure they continue to receive care. </p>
<p>All states routinely undertake mental health screening on admission to prison, although the practices vary widely. Best practice in prison mental health screening requires a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14789949.2014.933862#abstract">standardised reception screening measure</a>, used by a mental health professional. </p>
<p>Less screening and identification of mental health conditions occurs at other points of entry to the justice system.</p>
<h2>Community diversion</h2>
<p>Many people entering custody have received mental health treatment in the community, raising the question of why we don’t divert more mentally ill individuals from custody to community mental health services.</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://link.springer.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/article/10.1007/s00127-010-0256-5">own research</a> shows that almost a third (32%) of detainees being taken into police custody in Victoria were receiving psychiatric treatment in the community at the time of being arrested. Of these people, half (17%) were being treated by a public mental health service.</p>
<p>Court-based mental health services offer great opportunity to intervene for people who do not go into police custody or prison.
New South Wales, for example, has been gradually expanding court and custodial diversion of mentally ill individuals. Most diversions come from the courts to community mental health services, with a smaller number of diversions coming from custody. The state is now diverting around 2,000 people per year. </p>
<p>Diversion is one of the best strategies for keeping people with mental illnesses out of the justice system. This, of course, raises concerns about the capacity of community mental health services. </p>
<p>However, not all people are suitable for diversion. Entry into such programs must be dependent on the person’s charges and behaviour.</p>
<h2>Services in prisons</h2>
<p>When it comes to mental health care, the proverbial buck stops with prisons. Medicare does not extend to prisoners, so all in-custody mental health services must be funded within state health and justice budgets. </p>
<p>The standard for prisoner mental health care should be equivalent to that which is expected in the community. But while community and inpatient services may turn away patients, the same is not true for prisons. </p>
<p>In a number of states, prison health and mental health services are funded by justice, not health. This amplifies the disconnect between community and prison-based services and represents a lost opportunity for the provision of services and for the continuity of care.</p>
<p>Services within prisons require a mix of providers, including general practitioners, mental health nurses, clinical psychologists, allied mental health staff and psychiatrists. Most prisoners with mental illnesses can be managed in mainstream settings in the prison, receiving what is termed “outpatient” services. </p>
<p>However, clear pathways and services must enable prisoners to voluntarily escalate to more specialist care. Specialist mental health units <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19296268">currently operate</a> in large reception prisons in Melbourne and Sydney, with hundreds of admissions annually. </p>
<p>Options must also be available to transfer prisoners requiring involuntary hospitalisation to forensic hospitals or other appropriate mental health units in hospitals. This is an incredibly challenging matter since it is common for prisoners to be held in prisons, certified for transfer to hospital, but unable to leave the prison due to a lack of hospital beds in the community. </p>
<p>Prisons also require so-called “step down” units that enable prisoners with mental illnesses to transition from specialist mental health units to mainstream units.</p>
<h2>Care on release from custody</h2>
<p>All too often, prisoners with mental illnesses are released without the arrangement of appropriate follow-up care and without the psychiatric medication necessary to maintain their mental health. </p>
<p>While many states offer transitional care, this is an area that requires much greater coordination and resources. When prisoners are released from custody, even if discharge care and planning is arranged, they can nonetheless be all too easily lost to contact, only to have them deteriorate and re-engage in the behaviour for which they were initially incarcerated.</p>
<h2>Mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners</h2>
<p>A common theme throughout this <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">series on the state of Australian prisons</a> is the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners. </p>
<p>The difficulties with mental illness are compounded in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. Recent <a href="http://assets.justice.vic.gov.au/corrections/resources/07c438bf-63a6-49bb-8426-d7fd073808a6/koori_prisoner_mental_health.pdf">research in Victoria</a> revealed that 72% of male Aboriginal prisoners and 92% of female Aboriginal prisoners met the criteria for a diagnosis of a major mental illness. This research parallels similar findings in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. </p>
<p>Victoria has <a href="http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/home/your+rights/aboriginal+justice+agreement/aboriginal+social+and+emotional+wellbeing+plan#breadcrumbs">recently released</a> an Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing Plan to better address the mental health needs of Aboriginal prisoners. Other states have developed plans but clearly much more needs to be done in this area.</p>
<h2>Careful planning</h2>
<p>To be most effective, the delivery of mental health care in custodial settings needs to be carefully planned with a statewide approach that forms part of a comprehensive forensic mental health service. </p>
<p>Although not mentioned above, services are required for other populations, including female prisoners who have even higher rates of mental illness. The mental health needs of culturally and linguistically diverse prisoners also present challenges. </p>
<p>While the states are struggling with increasing numbers of prisoners, great promise exists to divert large numbers of people with mental illnesses out of prisons, and to provide greater care to those in custody and on release from prison.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the State of Imprisonment series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40011/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Ogloff is a member of the executive of Forensicare, which is contracted to provide specialist mental health services in Victorian prisons; he is also a Board Member of the Justice Health & Forensic Mental Health Network in NSW, which provides health services in justice. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of his employers. He receives funding from the ARC and AIC investigating the mental health of prisoners.</span></em></p>Our research suggests one in three people taken into police custody are likely to be receiving psychiatric treatment at the time.James Ogloff, University Distinguished Professor of Forensic Behavioural Science, Director of the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Victorian Institute of Forensic Behavioural Science (Forensicare), Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/400742015-04-22T19:45:53Z2015-04-22T19:45:53ZThe evidence is in: you can’t link imprisonment to crime rates<p><em>This article is one of several following up The Conversation’s series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a>, which provides snapshots of imprisonment trends in each state and territory. The intention is to provide a basis for informed public discussion of the costs and consequences of imprisonment and the alternatives.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Prison populations in Australia are increasing rapidly. This is usually said to be driven by increases in crime. Digging deeper though, in Australia and internationally, the link is far less clear. The extent of a country’s use of imprisonment seems in fact to be more a matter of policy choice than of necessity. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-imprisonment-victoria-is-leading-the-nation-backwards-38905">Victoria’s prison system</a> has experienced particularly striking overcrowding in the past two years. More people are being sentenced to prison. More people are being remanded in custody rather than being granted bail. At the same time more people are being refused parole and therefore serving their full sentence in prison.</p>
<p>Governments argue that crime rates are increasing, that communities are fearful and that more offenders must therefore be sent to prison. Some horrific high-profile crimes by people on parole have also led to the closing off of parole.</p>
<p>In fact, crime rates are not increasing in any uniform way. The <a href="http://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/home/media+centre/news/key+figures+year+to+31+december+2014">latest figures</a> for Victoria, where imprisonment rates have risen sharply, show increases in some offences (including some but not all violent offences) and decreases in some offences, while most remained stable. </p>
<p>The increased use of imprisonment was not simply a response to increased crime. And the time lag between offending and sentencing rules out the argument that recent increases in the prison population have – for example, by deterrence – led to any stabilisation of the crime rate.</p>
<p>So crime rates are not driving the increasing use of incarceration. This conclusion is borne out by looking outside Australia. </p>
<h2>The global picture of crime and imprisonment</h2>
<p>The use of <a href="http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_population_rate?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All">imprisonment around the world</a> varies enormously. </p>
<p>For instance, the US famously imprisons more of its population than almost any other country (698 prisoners per 100,000 population). Scandinavian countries use prisons at about one-tenth of that rate (e.g. Denmark 67/100,000, Sweden 57/100,000), with the UK at 144/100,000. The <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/4512.0Main%20Features1December%20Quarter%202014?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4512.0&issue=December%20Quarter%202014&num=&view=">latest ABS data</a> puts Australia’s imprisonment rate at 190/100,000 but rising fast.</p>
<p>At the same time we see that crime rates vary around the world – but not really in a way that correlates with imprisonment rates. For example, crime rates increased significantly throughout the developed world from about the 1970s to the 1990s. But, in that period, <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo5417922.html">Michael Tonry shows</a> imprisonment rates increased significantly in the USA and the Netherlands, remained stable in Canada and Norway, zigzagged in France and fell sharply in Finland and Japan.</p>
<p>In fact there is no obvious relationship between imprisonment rates and crime rates. Research by <a href="http://www.rsf.uni-greifswald.de/fileadmin/mediapool/lehrstuehle/duenkel/LappiSeppala_PenalSeverity.pdf">Tapio Lappi-Seppala shows</a>, for example, that for some countries’ imprisonment rates move in line with crime rates (such as the USA, Denmark, Germany and Japan), while in other countries they move in opposite directions (such as in the UK, Italy, the Netherlands and New Zealand).</p>
<p>Looking just at <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/why-scandinavian-prisons-are-superior/279949/">Scandinavian countries</a>, much can be learnt about the politics of imprisonment from <a href="http://euc.sagepub.com/content/9/2/206.refs">Finland’s experience</a>. In the 1960s the government decided to reduce the use of imprisonment to bring Finland more into line with the other <a href="http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:526664/FULLTEXT01.pdf">Scandinavian countries</a>.</p>
<p>Between 1960 and 1990 the Finnish imprisonment rate fell from 165/100,000 to 60/100,000. This <a href="http://euc.sagepub.com/content/9/2/206.full.pdf+html">was achieved by</a>, for instance, reducing the offences for which imprisonment was an available sentence, shortening sentences, increasing early release schemes, introducing community service sentences and severely restricting the availability of prison terms for young offenders.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.oijj.org/en/interviews/dr-tapio-lappi-seppala-director-general-of-the-national-research-institute-of-legal-polic">Finnish commentator</a> argues that this was possible because of the political will to change. This was itself made possible by a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/02/international/europe/02FINL.html">social and political consensus</a> in a political system not driven by short electoral cycles and in which governments look for and accept expert independent advice on alternative forms of punishments.</p>
<p>But it was also achievable because at that time Finland had no tabloid press; <a href="https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&doctype=cite&docid=37+Crime+%26+Just.+313&key=1bfbc1bd36f78ba4facd854ddb148ced">crime was not a “hot button” issue</a> used to sell newspapers.</p>
<p>While Finland was cutting its prison rates enormously compared to the rest of Scandinavia, the trends and rates of recorded crime were <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4-_FBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT17&dq=%22Resisting+punitiveness+in+Europe%22+Snacken+and+Dumortier+2012&ots=RjM1CjpHut&sig=Pb9SVKXMdtbekMb-LqONeR6y1-w#v=onepage&q=%22Resisting%20punitiveness%20in%20Europe%22%20Snacken%20and%20Dumortier%202012&f=false">similar across all these countries</a>. From 1950 to 2010 crime rates in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland rose uniformly and in parallel up to about 1990 and then levelled off or declined. Prison rates in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, however, were similar and stable, while the Finnish prison rates dropped dramatically. </p>
<h2>If crime rates don’t explain it, what is happening?</h2>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Penal_Systems.html?id=dXA7oj1L9BkC&redir_esc=y">Analyses</a> by many <a href="http://www.sagepub.com/banks/articles/01/Nelken_CH01.pdf">commentators</a> link the differential use of imprisonment to broader political frameworks and levels of social inequality. They point out that neoliberal countries – such as the USA and Australia – tend to have higher imprisonment rates, while social democracies such as Scandinavian countries have low imprisonment rates.</p>
<p>Related explanations focus on whether a country has inclusionary or exclusionary politics. <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ahlaaziwIeEC&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=%22exclusionary+cultural+attitudes%22&source=bl&ots=8Pfj3mJTOH&sig=L5Aqj3oNDrzmmWakhtaKXcexhpI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=reQ2VYv8CIL3mQXXjICoDg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22exclusionary%20cultural%20attitudes%22&f=false">It is argued</a> that neoliberal societies have the highest prison rates because they have social and economic policies that lead to “exclusionary cultural attitudes” towards deviant fellow citizens. By contrast, European corporatist societies (“coordinated market economies”) and Scandinavian social democratic societies <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ahlaaziwIeEC&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=%22see+offenders+as+needing+resocialisation,+which+is+the+responsibility+of+the+community+as+a+whole%22&source=bl&ots=8Pfj3mJUQI&sig=iN_yBnjWuQ1O58ljB5Ury2CYoJo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JuU2VeOUA-HPmwWuh4DQDg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22see%20offenders%20as%20needing%20resocialisation%2C%20which%20is%20the%20responsibility%20of%20the%20community%20as%20a%20whole%22&f=false">are said to</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>see offenders as needing resocialisation, which is the responsibility of the community as a whole.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1086/660822?uid=3737536&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21106541823843">Links can also be made</a> between a country’s welfare system and rates of imprisonment: reduced welfare correlates with increased imprisonment. The association between increasingly punitive policies and the winding back of the welfare state in the USA and the UK is often noted. The USA has the highest <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/19/global-inequality-how-the-u-s-compares/">levels of income inequality</a> of Western countries, the Scandinavian countries the lowest. Scandinavia also ranks <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo12521631.html">highest on social expenditure</a> within Europe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78874/original/image-20150422-23630-lnd7rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78874/original/image-20150422-23630-lnd7rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78874/original/image-20150422-23630-lnd7rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78874/original/image-20150422-23630-lnd7rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78874/original/image-20150422-23630-lnd7rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78874/original/image-20150422-23630-lnd7rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78874/original/image-20150422-23630-lnd7rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78874/original/image-20150422-23630-lnd7rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Halden Prison is a maximum-security prison in Norway with a focus on rehabilitation that is reflected in its design.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halden_Prison#/media/File:Interior_in_Halden_prison.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Norway Ministry of Justice</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Imprisonment is a political choice</h2>
<p>The form of democracy may also be important to political and community attitudes to punishment. Some commentators (see <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Penal_Systems.html?id=dXA7oj1L9BkC&redir_esc=y">here</a>, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ahlaaziwIeEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Comparative+Criminal+Justice+and+Globalization%22+Nelken&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uuY2VaGPPKOnmAWQ5IDYCQ&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Comparative%20Criminal%20Justice%20and%20Globalization%22%20Nelken&f=false">here</a>, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=yJ2VQgAACAAJ&dq=%22CRIME,+PUNISHMENT,+AND+POLITICS+IN+A+COMPARATIVE+PERSPECTIVE%22+Tonry&hl=en&sa=X&ei=B-c2VZj8B6S6mAWCyIDABQ&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA">here</a> and <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/law/criminal-law/prisoners-dilemma-political-economy-and-punishment-contemporary-democracies">here</a>) make the comparison of confrontational two-party democracies, such as the USA and Australia, with more consensus-driven democracies such as Scandinavian countries. </p>
<p>Majoritarian two-party systems, it is argued, tend to give rise to adversarial and punitive law-and-order politics. By contrast, consensus-based models of decision making are said to prioritise compromise, making oppositional correctional politics unlikely.</p>
<p>Clearly, the extent of the use of imprisonment is a policy choice by governments. Looking around the world it is now widely recognised that there is no direct relationship between crime rates and imprisonment rates. There is a clearer connection between rates of imprisonment and levels of social inequality.</p>
<p>If crime rates don’t demand increased use of imprisonment, we must immediately reconsider our headlong rush to hyper-incarceration. If we were to learn from the international comparison, we would be investing much more in schools, families and communities, and much less in prisons.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read the other articles in the State of Imprisonment series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Naylor has received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Some claim rising crime rates justify jailing more people, others that such policies cut crime. Evidence from around the world shows those claims are wrong and that we should be looking at inequality.Bronwyn Naylor, Associate professor, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.