Page 2907 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 August 2015
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designed to have single individuals in a cell. One constituent wrote to me and said he has been a non-smoker his entire life. He has finally been forced to share a cell with a smoker who perpetually smokes inside the cell. That goes against the current prison operating practices. Smoking is allowed on prison grounds but not in cell blocks and cottage accommodation. However, I know from my experience of being out there that that is a policy that is very seldom enforced.
On top of this, we have contraband. We have knives going into the jail, we have mobile phones going into the jail, we have drugs going into the jail—weapons of all types. Not only is the contraband getting out, but somehow whilst detainees are in prison, prisoners that are in there have the hide and the audacity to flout the rules, probably because they know the punishment will not come on the other hand. They post social media commentary on their daily lives inside the AMC, they post videos of fights that they have been conducting in the prison, and it all goes to highlight the systemic issues that are evident in this facility. They have no-one to blame other than those opposite. They brought forward the policy to build the jail, they opened the jail and they have operated the jail to this very day. The legacy of failings that are there lies solely at the feet of members opposite.
I would like to touch on a couple of other small issues, including a couple of elements that have recently appeared in the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice partnership agreement 2015-18. It makes mention of a term that has been used in this place quite regularly—that is, the term “justice reinvestment”. That sounds like a very promising policy idea and a very promising term. The justice agreement talks about “justice reinvestment and justice reform”. It says:
Justice reinvestment as a concept has been gaining momentum in Australia as a mechanism for addressing reoffending and making the justice system more effective and efficient.
I think they are moves that need to be applauded. It goes on to say:
Broadly speaking justice reinvestment seeks to reduce prison funds by providing support to recidivist offenders and reinvesting the savings into local communities to which these recidivist offenders return.
What they are seeking to do is cut funding to the jail at a time they are increasing the capacity, and put that money back into the community. That rings some significant alarm bells, particularly when you read one of the objectives of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice agreement. I understand that it is in line with some nationally established frameworks—that is, to “reduce the daily average population of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the AMC, as a percentage of the total prison population, to 10 per cent” of the entire prison.
That is a very admirable policy outcome to be aiming for. What has not been explained is how we are going to go about achieving that. It could very easily be achieved today simply by taking out any numbers of detainees in the AMC over 10 per cent. “Job done—tick; we have achieved a target.” But that is not going to be acceptable. That is not going to fly for the judiciary and that is not going to fly for the community. So how are they going to target issues such as the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in our prison system, when all the while they are cutting funding to
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