Australia’s offshore detention policies have helped to produce indifference to the suffering of refugees. Pushing refugees out of sight, and out of mind, has now placed them beyond moral concern.
The UN has twice called on Australia to dismantle its indefinite detention system for people with cognitive impairments and mental illness, which disproportionately affects Indigenous people.
Programs designed to enhance legal access for people with cognitive disabilities accused of a crime are more humane and could be more cost effective than long-term detention.
Those with learning or other disabilities need someone to back them up in the legal system to avoid injustices.
Making a Murderer/Netflix
The most shocking moments of the true crime documentary Making a Murderer depict two police officers gently coaxing a softly spoken teenager to recount his role in a vicious crime. Warning: spoilers ahead.
Queensland attorney-general Jarrod Bleijie has taken decisions about detaining sex offenders in prison after their sentences have been served into his own hands.
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There is a good constitutional reason for not allowing politicians to make decisions which result in imprisonment. It’s called the separation of powers and is meant to ensure that politics does not intrude…
People with intellectual disabilities are detained indefinitely under WA laws.
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People with intellectual disabilities who are found to be “unfit to plead” are still locked away for years on end in Western Australia. Similarly, in the Northern Territory, this detention occurs in prison…
Another High Court challenge to the Gillard government’s indefinite detention of ‘legal black hole’ refugees has experts calling for alternatives.
AAP/Jeremy Piper
The Gillard government is facing another High Court challenge to its indefinite detention of the 55 refugees to have received adverse security assessments from ASIO. These continuing legal troubles, along…