tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/imprisonment-causes-15750/articlesImprisonment causes – The Conversation2015-06-16T02:07:51Ztag: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>
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<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">
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<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>
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</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>
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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/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/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>
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<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>
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<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>
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<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>
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<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.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/389022015-04-12T20:32:22Z2015-04-12T20:32:22ZThe state of imprisonment in Australia: it’s time to take stock<p><em>This article introduces 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 imprisonment policies and of the costs and consequences for Australia of rising rates of incarceration.</em></p>
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<p>Australia has reached a decade-high rate of imprisonment. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMedia%20Release%7EAustralian%20prisoner%20numbers%20climb%20to%20ten%20year%20high%20(Media%20Release)%7E10023">announcement</a> of this last year created little impact or interest. </p>
<p>Across Australia, 33,791 persons were in adult corrective services custody at June 30 2014. That was a 10% increase from 2013. By the December quarter 2014, the average daily number of prisoners had <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4512.0">risen to 34,647</a>.</p>
<p>For both men and women in custody, the most frequent serious offence was an act intended to cause injury (21% for men, 20% for women). </p>
<p>The next most common offences differed <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ESex%7E5">according to gender</a>. Men were equally likely to be in custody for a most serious offence of sexual assault, unlawful entry with intent and illicit drug offences (all 12%). For women, the next most likely reasons were illicit drug offences (17%) and offences against justice procedures, government security and operations (11%).</p>
<p>The circumstances that lead to imprisonment and the context of the crime cannot be ascertained from such data. It still raises important questions about the use of imprisonment for non-violent offences. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&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 number of people imprisoned in Australia continues to grow strongly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4512.0#">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Indigenous Australians suffer punitive approach</h2>
<p>An ongoing issue in Australia, which we have failed to reverse – just as we have failed to <a href="http://www.dpmc.gov.au/pmc-indigenous-affairs/publication/closing-gap-prime-ministers-report-2015">close the gap</a> – is the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7EAboriginal%20&%20Torres%20Strait%20Islander%20prisoner%20characteristics%7E10007">over-representation</a> of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our prisons.</p>
<p>Nationally, the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7EImprisonment%20rates%7E10009">rate of imprisonment</a> for ATSI people was 13 times higher than for non-Indigenous people at June 30, 2014. This figure covers a diverse situation across the nation. <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7EWestern%20Australia%7E10019">In Western Australia</a>, ATSI men and women are 18 times more times likely than non-Indigenous Australians to be imprisoned in WA, whereas <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ETasmania%7E10020">in Tasmania</a> the rate is four times higher.</p>
<p>In 2013, Chris Cunneen <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-fear-and-funding-undercut-a-fair-go-for-indigenous-victorians-20644">articulated the concern</a> in The Conversation that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… too many Indigenous Australians will remain second-class citizens in their own country … remaining the object of law when it comes to criminalisation and incarceration.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The most recent statistics affirm that Cunneen’s predictions are unfolding with little sign of abating. </p>
<h2>Prisons are a poor substitute for mental health care</h2>
<p>An emerging concern is the recognition and realisation that mental illness and mental impairment are diagnosed at much higher rates within our imprisoned population than in the wider community. </p>
<p>Data on this issue is less easily accessed nationally. What we <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/prisoner-health/mental-health/">do know</a> is that there is a “higher incidence of mental health problems in the Australian prison population than in the general population” and that “almost two in five prison entrants (38%) reported having been told that they have a mental health disorder”.</p>
<p>Prison is fast becoming a significant location for individuals with <a href="https://theconversation.com/caring-for-ex-prisoners-under-the-ndis-would-save-money-and-lives-31974">high mental health needs</a> to be supported and managed. This reflects a national malaise, stemming from the responsibility we must all bear for decisions to remove so many of the support networks that were in place decades ago – and to remove them without any replacement or alternative. The result has been the criminalisation of an increasing number of people.</p>
<h2>Public debate ignores need for change</h2>
<p>This brief review of current data and trends raises several important questions: why is imprisonment being used, for what purpose, and to what ends?</p>
<p>This series aims to offer a snapshot of incarceration trends across Australia and to identify imprisonment policies and practices that we need to change. </p>
<p><br></p>
<iframe src="https://d3602hfvnbc5pq.cloudfront.net/knqXJ/1/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="520"></iframe>
<p>Each state and territory has different issues of most concern. These may relate to rates of imprisonment of particular marginalised populations, or legislative changes resulting in remand rates skyrocketing and/or parole being virtually unobtainable. </p>
<p>While Australian trends in imprisonment can always <a href="http://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/prisonstudies.org/files/resources/downloads/wppl_10.pdf">be favourably compared</a> to other nations <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-policy-is-turning-australia-into-the-second-nation-of-captives-38842">such as the US</a>, it is clear that current trends across the nation have significant short-and long-term consequences. Attracting public attention and engagement with these consequences is challenging in a political, <a href="https://theconversation.com/tabloid-driven-sentencing-policies-waste-public-money-and-lives-27072">social, and media environment</a> dominated by <a href="https://theconversation.com/justice-reinvestment-saves-huge-costs-of-law-and-order-auctions-33018">law-and-order politics</a>.</p>
<p>This series aims to provide a platform for public discussion via a critical mass of articles that take stock of the situation in each state and territory, and as a nation.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie Segrave receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is a co-founder of the Imprisonment Observatory. </span></em></p>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?Marie Segrave, Senior Lecturer, Criminology, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.