20 July 2023
The Cost Of Prisons In Australia: 2023
The fundamental aims of the Australian criminal justice system include ensuring public safety, deterring criminal behaviour, holding offenders accountable and providing restitution for victims. Incarceration plays a particular role in supporting these aims. It is important that violent, antisocial, and dangerous criminals are removed from the community so that they cannot bring further harm onto others. This isolation of threats
12 July 2023
Should We Be Tougher On Youth Crime?
In this article, Mia Schlicht contextualises and disseminates the findings of the IPA’s research into Australia’s level of incarceration, conducted as part of IPA’s Legal Rights Program. The IPA’s Legal Rights Program aims to research various government actions and policies and how they impact the principles of a free society, including the rule of law, our civil and political rights,
12 June 2023
Better Ways To Deal With Many Who Are Incarcerated
In this article, Morgan Begg contextualises and disseminates the findings of the IPA’s research into Australia’s level of incarceration, and how low-risk and nonviolent offenders can help alleviate worker shortages, conducted as part of IPA’s Legal Rights Program. The IPA’s Legal Rights Program aims to research various government actions and policies and how they impact the principles of a free
10 March 2023
Let Them Work: How Criminal Justice Reform Can Help Address Australia’s Worker Shortage
Australia is experiencing both an incarceration crisis and an unprecedented worker shortage. Sensible criminal justice reform can address the excessive burden on Australia’s prison system while also filling persistent job vacancies in the economy. The total cost to the Australian taxpayer of imprisoning roughly 42,000 prisoners is now nearly $4.5 billion annually. Over-incarceration imposes an additional cost on Australians by
10 March 2023
Australia’s Incarceration Crisis Is Worker Shortage Solution
“As Australia faces simultaneous incarceration and worker shortage crises, many low-risk non-violent offenders could be gainfully employed in the community right now without risk,” said Professor Mirko Bagaric, Dean of the Swinburne University of Technology Law School. Today, the Institute of Public Affairs released a new research report, Let Them Work: How Criminal Justice Reform Can Help Address Australia’s Worker
8 February 2023
Time To Rebalance The Scales Of Justice
The death of Veronica Nelson in custody has finally convinced the state government to address the appalling rise in Victorian prison numbers, and, encouragingly, the state opposition agrees criminal justice reforms are necessary. Key to these reforms is a review of bail eligibility. The number of unsentenced prisoners, like Veronica Nelson, has more than doubled over the past decade. The
31 January 2023
Australia’s Incarceration Crisis Highlighted By New Productivity Commission Report
“Australia’s criminal justice system is fast approaching breaking-point, with urgent reform now required to stop wasteful spending of taxpayers’ money, improve community safety, and reduce unnecessary incarceration,” said Daniel Wild, Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs. Released today, the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services 2023 revealed; “Too many low-risk, non-violent offenders are being locked up, which
11 November 2022
Urgent Action Needed To Fix Australia’s Emerging Incarceration Crisis
“Australia’s sentencing policies are causing mass-incarceration, imposing significant social and economic costs on the community, and not delivering the justice outcomes we deserve,” said Professor Mirko Bagaric, the Dean of Law at the Swinburne University of Technology Law School. Today, the Institute of Public Affairs released a new research report, Australia’s Emerging Incarceration Crisis: Proposed Reforms of the Australian Sentencing
11 November 2022
Australia’s Emerging Incarceration Crisis: Proposed Reforms Of The Australian Sentencing System
The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) has taken a lead role in providing empirically-grounded reform proposals for the criminal justice system, with a strong focus on reducing incarceration numbers. The report released in 2017, titled Australia’s Criminal Justice Costs: An International Comparison noted that ‘despite spending more than most countries [on prisons] and more and more each year, our results
31 October 2022
IPA Welcomes Andrew Leigh’s Sentencing Reforms
“Andrew Leigh is completely right to say that Australia’s incarceration rate is far too high, and that reducing it can deliver significant community wide benefits without compromising community safety,” said Daniel Wild, Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs. In an address to the Australian Institute of Criminology Conference in Canberra today, Federal Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh spoke
