Many Canberrans might be surprised to learn the ACT has the highest rate of prior incarceration in Australia, with 80 per cent of people in the Alexander Maconochie Centre having spent time in prison before.
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It's not the catering that brings them back. It's the failure of a multitude of systems, which means that a first contact with the criminal justice system, often at a young age, becomes the ticket to a revolving door.
If we're going to reduce the number of people returning to jail - as the ACT government aims to do - we need to take a closer look at our policies and practices and be prepared to take a different approach, guided by the evidence on what actually delivers better outcomes for individuals and communities and stops that revolving door.
Prison doesn't work. It doesn't work to address the drivers of criminal justice system contact and it doesn't work to deter people from committing crime. People come out of prison with greater disadvantages than when they went in, setting a pathway for returning through that door.
For many years, we've been firm believers in justice reinvestment; investing in programs and services outside of the justice system as a common-sense approach to address the drivers of incarceration.
We have the most expensive prison system in Australia per capita, so we need to reprioritise where our money is spent if we want better outcomes. We need to deepen our investments in evidence-based early intervention, crime prevention and diversion programs to reduce the number of people being locked up in the first place.
Australia has a deep-seated policy tendency towards locking people up. We are still learning the hard way that this simply further entrenches disadvantage, but does not improve community safety in the long run.
A new report, published by the Justice Reform Initiative this week, acknowledges that while the ACT has made some steps towards important justice system changes, the plan to reduce recidivism would benefit enormously from an injection of funds, alongside a genuinely whole-of-government approach.
Improvements to the justice system must happen alongside reforms in health, housing, child protection and education to prevent cycles of incarceration becoming entrenched. The report recommends the role of a Justice Reinvestment Coordinator-General be established to ensure effective coordination across relevant government agencies, and to champion the initiatives that are getting results.
This is just one step we could take to make the ACT not just a national leader in our criminal justice approach, but one to watch on the world stage.
Our relatively low crime rates and small population size mean that we have an opportunity to do things differently, to lean in and properly resource those innovative community-led initiatives that can and already are achieving results, despite piecemeal resourcing and lack of long-term funding.
We need to extend the reach of effective supports for people in the community and make them more accessible. The Justice Reform Initiative, of which we are patrons, has recommended a Breaking the Cycle Fund with initial funding of at least $20 million a year to build the capacity of the community sector to provide diversion and support programs, with a particular emphasis on building the capacity of First Nations organisations.
It is unthinkable that the ACT has the highest First Nations incarceration rates compared with non-Indigenous incarceration rates in the country. This is rightly under closer examination, with an independent review tasked with considering practical measures to address this overrepresentation which is replicated around the country and is our national shame.
The ACT has led Australia in making solid first steps towards a better criminal justice system, including being the first jurisdiction to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, but we will keep making the same mistakes and trapping too many people in a relentless cycle of incarceration unless we go further.
Jailing is failing as the policy response, and while there's no 'quick fix', we can achieve real change and build pathways away from the justice system by backing community-led, place-based and evidence-backed programs - at considerably less expense compared to running the AMC and keeping people coming back through the courts system.
We can stop the revolving door and improve community safety by addressing the drivers of crime. It's time for the ACT to truly lead with a smarter approach to justice.
- Professor Tom Calma is a patron of the Justice Reform Initiative and former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander commissioner and race discrimination commissioner.
- Kate Carnell AO is a former ACT chief minister, a patron of the Justice Reform Initiative, and deputy chair of BeyondBlue.
