In this article, Mia Schlicht and Marc Levin contextualises and disseminates the IPA’s criminal justice research.
As the dust settles on Premier Roger Cook’s emphatic election victory, he and his Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia face a reckoning when it comes to a prison system that is well and truly beyond breaking point.
In February, the Productivity Commission sounded the alarm bell on WA’s prisons, reporting they were fast approaching maximum capacity. In fact, during the State election campaign, this masthead revealed a secret State Government plan to spend $1 billion on a new prison in Perth’s south-east.
Regardless, it is no secret that the State’s justice system has long teetered on breaking point. Last year, reports of prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor and being covertly transported to undisclosed locations to mitigate overcrowding were commonplace.
What is certain is that a business-as-usual approach to criminal justice can no longer apply. In fact, Mr Cook and Mr Papalia are in a unique position to lead Australia in a new direction when it comes to criminal justice reform.
In Australia today, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the number of violent offenders has increased by 26 per cent over the last decade.
Ask yourself a question: if intimate partner killings of women rose 28 per cent from 2021 to 2023, and the cost of shoplifting, which reflects the value of the items stolen, has risen 40 per cent in just the past two years, how would you handle such appalling rises in crime?
Do we want our jails used to remove violent criminals from our streets to protect us? Or do we want prisons used as a catch-all for those who stray onto the wrong side of the tracks, regardless of whether they could redeem themselves through work and restitution?
Prisons are an essential part of our justice system. We need them to lock away violent criminals who remain an ongoing threat to community safety. But under the current approach, we lean far too heavily on them to punish non-violent offenders who could be sanctioned effectively in other ways.
In many cases, such offenders can be held accountable in the community. To boost accountability, sentences can mandate treatment for those with addiction and require people who have stolen property to work and pay restitution to their victims.
In contrast, when someone goes to prison, taxpayers provide for their room and board, and incarceration typically prevents them from earning wages that allow for victim compensation and can lead to a life of escalating criminal activity.
In American states, such as Texas and Pennsylvania, positive incentives are provided. For example, someone on probation who obtains a degree or vocational certificate, and also demonstrates exemplary behaviour, can earn their way off supervision.
This frees up probation officers to focus more effort on supervising those who remain in need of supervision. In Australia, this could also help to alleviate our chronic worker shortages.
Institute of Public Affairs’ analysis has shown that WA spends in excess of $400 million per year to incarcerate non-violent prisoners. This is an astronomically large amount of taxpayers’ money spent on people who could otherwise be doing more worthwhile things at no, or little, threat to the community.
Savings from reducing the unnecessary incarceration of non-violent offenders can be reinvested into law enforcement, allowing governments to increase the police presence on the streets to better deter crime from happening in the first place.
In addition, with Australian authorities solving as few as 10 to 15 per cent of burglaries, more resources are needed for police detectives and forensic techniques. This is essential not just for delivering justice to victims, but also as a deterrent for future perpetrators.
No one should escape punishment for their crime. However, we need to recognise there are many alternative punishments that can be imposed on non-violent offenders, which give back to victims and the community, deter criminal behaviour, and save money for the taxpayer.
If governments across Australia want improved community safety, they must think outside the cell to ensure taxpayers are getting the best return on their correctional investment. Western Australia has the opportunity to lead the charge, and the government must take it.
This opinion piece was co-authored with Marc Levin – chief policy counsel at the Council on Criminal Justice in Washington DC .
