President Obama wants to reopen access to Pell grants to prisoners. Studies show when men and women enroll in college programs, they are less likely to return to prison.
Joyce Mitchell appears in court in Plattsburgh, New York on July 28 2015.
Reuters
It’s fair to say Victoria’s ban on smoking in prisons has had some teething issues, but there’s strong evidence to suggest the move is doing the right thing by inmates, staff and the health system.
Oscar Pistorius’ early release was a virtual certainty from the day he was sentenced.
EPA/Herman Verwey
Oscar Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for what was deemed a tragic accident. In light of that verdict, he has not been subject to any special treatment in terms of his sentence.
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.
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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.
Judge Steven Alm pioneered the HOPE project, the first of scores of swift and certain sanction programmes in the US.
Youtube/PBS screenshot
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.
A NSW programme in which prisoners train stray dogs as part of their rehabilitation is one of a number of innovations adopted in recent years.
AAP
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.
Indigenous young people are 25 times more likely to be detained than non-Indigenous young people.
AAP/Jesse Roberts
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.
Unless most prisoners are given a realistic prospect of rehabilitation, how much good can prison really do?
Shutterstock/sakhorn
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.
Conservatives pledge to get police in line in bid to improve public confidence.
Oast House Archive
When it comes to crime and justice, the Conservatives don’t convince.
Entry to prison presents an opportunity to identify mental illnesses and provide treatment that will continue after release.
nando viciano/Shutterstock
Our research suggests one in three people taken into police custody are likely to be receiving psychiatric treatment at the time.
Long Bay Correctional Centre was dubbed the ‘Long Bay Hilton’ by ‘tough on crime’ advocates whose campaigns helped fill prison cells to overflowing.
Wikimedia Commons/J Bar
Most crime in NSW has been declining since the early 2000s, and the state’s current murder rate is half what it was in 1988. So why is the NSW prison population growing?
Queensland’s reliance on high-security facilities to house a growing prison population may be linked to the nation’s highest rates of return for prisoners on parole.
AAP/Dave Hunt
Queensland’s rates of imprisonment had been falling, but have undergone a sharp reversal - much of it driven by the nation’s highest rates of return by prisoners released into the community.
In the past decade, the number of people ending up in South Australian prison cells has grown at seven times the rate of the state population.
AAP/South Australian Correctional Services Department
Since 2004, the number of prisoners in South Australia has risen seven times faster than the state’s net population growth – and nearly doubled its rate of locking up Indigenous Australians.
Most Australian states are having to build more prisons to keep up with soaring rates of imprisonment.
AAP/Dave Hunt
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?
A man holds a placard reading “I am Charlie” to pay tribute to the victims following a shooting by gunmen at the offices of weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
Reuters
The media spotlight on Cherif Kouachi’s life rekindles questions about prisons and radicalization. As an alleged participant of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Kouachi has seemingly led many lives. In one incarnation…
The high rates of neurodevelopmental disorders among young people in custody show more must be done to resolve the problems that lead them there.
Karramba Production/Shutterstock
Incarcerated young people have high rates of neurodevelopmental disorders. A recent international review of research found estimates of the rate of learning disability among young people in custody range…
Opening doors for former offenders.
Peter Macdiarmid/PA Archive
Re-offending rates of former prisoners in England and Wales are stubbornly high, at more than 50% for young adults – and this costs the taxpayer between £9.5m and £13m per year. Despite the fact that research…