We wanted to quantify what social factors increase a person’s chance of ending up in prison, and to use that to improve policy and reduce the harms and costs of incarceration.
As the Law Council of Australia calls for the end of mandatory sentencing, it might be time for the Australian government to evaluate and resolve the troubles of this problematic system.
Aboriginal people with mental and cognitive disability are managed mostly by police, courts, prison and hospitals. It’s costing us millions, when kinder and cheaper alternatives exist.
Police have become the default frontline response to Aboriginal people with mental and cognitive disabilities, setting this group up for a lifetime of ‘management’ by the criminal justice system.
Research suggests serious problems with the way Aboriginal women, particularly those with mental and cognitive disabilities, are “managed” by the criminal justice system.
Australia’s high rates of imprisonment and re-imprisonment of Aboriginal people with mental and cognitive disabilities is not only shameful, it is entirely predictable and preventable.
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.
Northern Territory police powers to make ‘paperless arrests’ are completely contrary to recommendations by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and now the inevitable has happened.
The Northern Territory stands out for having one of the highest imprisonment rates in the world - much higher even than in the US - and it’s hard to argue that this does the community much good.
Indigenous people are jailed at a rate 18 times that of non-Aboriginal Western Australian adults, but the overall rate is high too. The great costs of this punitive approach yield few clear benefits.
In a new series on imprisonment trends, issues and policies across Australia, The Conversation asks why are imprisonment rates soaring, to what purpose, and with what financial and human consequences?
Victoria was once characterised by low imprisonment rates and innovative corrections policy. The state now has Australia’s highest rate of growth in imprisonment.