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Criminal justice at a crossroads in NSW

Opinion piece by Julie Edwards CEO

In recent months, the New South Wales government and the wider community have had to confront some very serious questions about community safety, crime, and how we deal with offenders. A series of detestable violent crimes, most shockingly the alleged murder of 18 year old Thomas Kelly in Kings Cross last month, have left the community looking for answers and solutions to make the streets safer for all in our community.

At the same time, the state government is grappling with the challenge of large numbers of young people being locked up without conviction due to inflexible and outdated bail laws, alarming levels of overrepresentation of indigenous people in the state's prisons, and the challenge of how to rehabilitate serious offenders who repeatedly offend. There challenges are being confronted in an environment where public spending is severely constrained. In fact, last week it emerged that the O'Farrell Government had slashed $23 million from prisoner rehabilitation programs in the last state budget.

The questions that need to be answered are where do we go from here and what approach should we take to address these issues? My organisation, Jesuit Social Services, has grappled with these questions for over 35 years. Through our work with individuals involved in the justice system and communities that are affected by crime we have come to see that clear answers are not easy to come by. A simple, one size fits all approach such as 'lock them up' will not work for everyone.

Instead, what is needed is a system that responds to offenders, their behaviour and the needs of victims in flexible and appropriate ways. This approach recognises that some criminal behaviour is so serious that it justifies imprisonment, that many individual offenders have unique and complex characteristics that need to be addressed, and that the community has a role to play in preventing and responding to the physical and social damage caused by crime.

It seems that a lot of us already understand this. In a recent public survey by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, respondents saw prison as the least effective measure to prevent crime and disorder. In fact, 61.8% of respondents viewed prison as effective compared witho 89.3% who believed better supervision by parents was effective, and 85.3% who believed better mental health care was required.

The announcement this week by the O'Farrell Government slashing $23 million from programs reducing prisoner reoffending highlights its dilemma in this area. In contrast, this week the Baillieu government, which promotes itself as 'tough on crime', asked for more diversion program options for people under 18. Though the Victorian Government faces similar budgetary constraints, it is recognising that diversionary programs save money in the long term and bring down recidivism rates; the long term solution to cutting crime.

At Jesuit Social Services, we have seen the long term benefits of investing in alternatives to prison. Our programs linked to Brosnan Services provide restorative justice programs, community support and options for people as they leave prison when they need help the most. Funding for these types of prevention and diversionary programs have proven in Victoria to deliver low rates of detention, low rates of recidivism and low rates of crime. After four years managing a community development project in Mount Druitt in Sydney's West, we see that these types of diversionary programs are lacking.

Of the $23 million slashed, $9 million is from the Offenders Program which focuses on reducing re-offending and helps with resettlement; $7.6 million from community supervision; $2.7 million from services for young people seeking bail, and; $3.9 million from juvenile custodial services. This does not include $20 million over four years lost for education and training programs in the prison system that provide life skills and the chance of future employment that will break the cycle of crime.

These cuts do not come at a time when NSW is doing well at deterring criminal activity with the threat of prison. ABS statistics show there are 110 people in prison for every 100,000 people in Victoria, compared with 170 for every 100,000 people in NSW. Across Australia 55% of prisoners in custody at 30 June 2011 had previously served a sentence in an adult prison. This suggests that the prison system as it currently operates is not successful in reducing reoffending rates and that more effective programs to stop reoffending are urgently needed.

Given the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research referred to above, it would seem that people in NSW know that prisons, whilst a necessary part of the justice system as an option of last resort, are ineffective in reducing crime. This is all the more reason for the funding of programs that set targets to ensure offenders leaving their walls are less likely to return.

The reduction in funding announced this week comes closely behind the closure of the Youth Drug and Alcohol Court. This was an important tool helping young people to deal with their substance misuse issues early in life. This means that one of the options for treating an offender's drug use - often the cause of the offending behaviour - has now been lost to the judicial system. The Australian Institute of Criminology recently reported that of a group of 131 young people detained by police in NSW, 45% tested positive to drug use. As Don Weatherburn's research into the Youth Drug and Alcohol Court showed, participants in this diversionary program were found to be 30% less likely to be reconvicted of a violent offence and 38% less likely to be reconvicted of a drug offence during the follow up period.

Finally on the issue of bail reform in NSW, there is a need for urgent action to stop the amount of people imprisoned on bail without a conviction. The Law Reform Commission report states that bail reforms are desperately needed as the present system violates basic principles of justice and unfairly imprisons homeless people, for example, who struggle to gain bail with no place to reside. The Attorney-General should be leading from the front by looking into diversionary options and their long term benefits.

Diversion for the right people is a smart – not a soft – approach to dealing with crime. It can be used to focus on rehabilitating people and seek, where appropriate, to reconcile them with the victims, their family and the community. Whether it is through youth drug courts, bail reforms or increasing funding of programs that reduce reoffending, alternatives to locking people in prisons are needed. The O'Farrell Government needs to start showing a real commitment to diversionary programs if there is to be any hope of reducing the high crime and prison population rate in NSW.

Jesuit Social Services is a not-for-profit organisation which works to build a just society by advocating for social change and promoting the health and wellbeing of disadvantaged young people, families and communities.