Page 5209 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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JUVENILE JUSTICE AND ADULT CORRECTIVE SERVICES – REVIEW
Ministerial Statement
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General), by leave: ACT Adult Corrective Services currently has responsibility for detention of those remanded in custody, arrangements with New South Wales for custody of prisoners of low to high security status, probation and parole schemes, the community service order scheme and attendance centre programs which commenced in 1989-90. The Juvenile Justice Section includes in its role the placement of a small number of violent or serious young offenders in New South Wales juvenile detention centres, the capacity to detain low to medium security young offenders at Quamby, and an attendance centre at Quamby for less serious offenders.
The number of offenders in these correctional services is dependent upon the incidence of offending behaviour and the sentencing practices of the Supreme Court and the Magistrates Court. The corrections system which the ACT Government has inherited from the Commonwealth has problems, which have been acknowledged for some time, related to the fact that former Commonwealth governments by and large simply adopted New South Wales criminal justice and corrections systems to deal with their own offenders.
Whilst the ACT's criminal legislation is gradually emerging from under this yoke, the transportation of persons sentenced by our courts to New South Wales creates particular hardship for the families and friends of prisoners. It is very difficult for them to maintain regular contact and hence makes more difficult the reintegration of prisoners into the community on their release. Under the legislation our prisoners are also subject to the truth in sentencing provisions which have abolished remissions for prisoners in New South Wales. This legislation has produced a dramatic increase in its prison populations over the past 15 months - some figures suggest in the order of 15 per cent.
The ACT should be proud of the fact that it has consistently had the lowest rate of imprisonment in the country. It is widely acknowledged that imprisonment should be used as a penalty of the last resort because of the hardship it causes to the offender and the family unit as well as its failure to rehabilitate and to prevent reoffending. In addition, it is extremely costly to the community. Expenditure in 1990-91 on adult corrections will be almost $7m. About half of this amount will pay for the accommodation of ACT prisoners in New South Wales gaols. Because of the impact of the New South Wales truth in sentencing provisions, this amount may increase over the next 12 months. It is therefore vital that the ACT address all means within its power to halt further escalation of costs in this area.
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