Page 3041 - Week 08 - Thursday, 15 August 2019
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We know that the AMC has been under pressure for population. That is not a secret. This budget boosts staff capacity at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, both to increase the number of corrections officers who might, to use the expression, work on the floor and to improve rehabilitation rates.
Alongside the purpose-built reintegration centre, we will also boost staff capacity at the AMC. Part of that will be to improve sentence management and post-release planning. For many people, time in custody can be a turning point in their lives. This investment seeks to take better advantage of that time behind bars to encourage genuine change and rehabilitation. It will allow a deeper engagement with the detainee’s original offending behaviour and increase the capacity for more targeted and individual services responses. And, as I said, we will deliver more custodial staff and additional services to reflect the growing population in the AMC.
These are significant investments, particularly focused on the corrections space, but also occurring in the justice space.
The Attorney-General has mentioned the Warrumbul sentencing court. This is an important justice investment that targets young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have been involved in the criminal justice system. I am glad the attorney touched on this today because it is a really important program. Under the guidance of a panel of elders, children and young people will be assisted to understand the underlying reasons and circumstances behind their offending behaviour.
The budget review, which I touched on earlier, has continued this theme of justice reinvestment and seeking to provide people with the supports at the root cause of their offending behaviour rather than simply by expanding the jail. That is the rationale behind the building communities not prisons program. That included the extension of the Yarrabi Bamirr program, extension of the strong connected neighbourhoods program, previously known as the high density housing program, and additional funds to Victim Support ACT to improve critical support services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
All of these investments by the government, including an investment to give the victims of crime financial assistance scheme more capacity, are about looking at the various points in the justice system where the community interacts. In particular, for those who have repeat interactions with the justice system, it is about trying to intervene in a way that breaks that cycle for them, as I touched on at the beginning of my remarks.
We believe this is the way to reduce recidivism over the years, to meet our target of reducing recidivism by 25 per cent by 2025, to ease pressure on the Alexander Maconochie Centre, to help people to have better lives in our community, and to make our community safer. If we can break that cycle of repeat offending, law-abiding members of the community will not be subjected to criminal offences. That is the case: this is as much about victims as it is about offenders, because we want to reduce the number of victims in our community as well.
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