At best, prison work programs increase the chances of successful reintegration after release. At worst, they can be exploitative.
- Professor of Criminology, Australian National University
Extensive evidence shows the government’s plan to legislate mandatory minimum sentences for hate crimes, including antisemitic acts, won’t be effective. Here’s why.
Arrested on suspicion of shoplifting and denied bail, Veronica Nelson died alone in a cell. A Victorian coroner has called for urgent reform of the state’s tough bail laws.
As we emerge from the pandemic, we need to rebuild our justice system to invest more in First Nations communities, not prisons. It is vital we not return to the status quo.
Health Minister Greg Hunt has issued a warning that the deliberate transmission of COVID-19 can be prosecuted. But the application of a law like this is unclear and could cause unnecessary worry.
Releasing prisoners on remand – who are entitled to a presumption of innocence – would reduce the risk of them contracting COVID-19 and the disease spreading within prisons.
Governments impose harsh restrictions to the freedom of sex offenders after their sentence. But there’s no evidence to support that ‘doing more of the same’ improves community safety.
Prisoners who took part in an eight-week yoga trial in a Canberra prison showed improvements in their levels of depression, anxiety and stress, as well as an increase in self-esteem.
For years, the benefits of justice reinvestment programs have been championed. Now the ACT is actually investing in it, and the federal government should do the same.
Under new WA legislation, the state’s attorney-general has the power to order serial killers and mass murders remain in jail, sometimes without judicial review.
Government and judicial interventions into the decisions of parole boards display a progressive loss of faith in these independent bodies.
An overriding focus on increasing sentences may not necessarily be the best means of redressing the harm caused by sex offences.
As difficult as it is to concede, lone-actor, grievance-fuelled violence cannot be solved simply by tightening justice processes.
Broadcaster Andrew Denton, an advocate for assisted dying law, told the Q&A audience it was not correct to say 550 newborn babies were killed last year under Dutch euthanasia laws. Is that right?
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.
The ACT’s first prison opened in 2009 with lofty ideals, but rising prisoner numbers and high rates of re-imprisonment are presenting a severe test of the capital’s reformist corrections agenda.
“This legislation will target only criminal motorcycle gang members. Other law abiding motorbike riders have nothing to worry about,” Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie, press release, October…
actually excited for jury duty tomorrow…it’s gonna be fun to tell the defendant they’re GUILTY :P - Facebook post, 2010 Guilty guilty…I will not be swayed. Practicing [sic] for jury duty. - Twitter post…
In the vast majority of cases where women kill their partners, there is a history of domestic violence. Isolation as well as often cyclical psychological and physical abuse means leaving home is not only…
In December 2010, Keli Lane, a former champion water polo player, was convicted of the 1996 murder of her two day old daughter, Tegan. The new-born girl was never seen again after leaving the hospital…
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