prison

14 August 2023

On August 14, IPA Research Analyst Mia Schlicht joined ABC Landline to discuss the IPA’s research into criminal justice reform and how it can help fill labour shortages. Below is a transcript of the interview. ABC Presenter: In the 26 years Boulia’s held camel races, event President Shelley Lorensen’s seen them grow in size and professionalism. Queensland Racing has even

20 July 2023

“With Australia’s prison system at breaking point, we need to shift our focus to crime prevention, ensuring violent offenders are sentenced for longer, and giving non-violent offenders the opportunity to get into work” said Mia Schlicht, Research Analyst at the Institute of Public Affairs. Today, the Institute of Public Affairs released new research, The Cost of Prisons in Australia: 2023,

20 July 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

29 May 2023

Dear Committee Members, Inquiry into Tasmanian Adult Imprisonment and Youth Detention Matters I am writing this letter regarding the current inquiry into Tasmanian adult imprisonment and youth detention matters. I note the Committee was given the following Terms of Reference: To inquire into and report upon Tasmanian corrective services and justice system matters related to adult imprisonment and youth detention

10 March 2023

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

30 September 2020

Victoria has been electrified by the prospect that politicians and public servants from the Premier down could be charged and even jailed for deaths attributable to the Hotel Quarantine fiasco, under tendentious new industrial manslaughter laws only recently enacted by the Andrews Government. Governments must be held to account, but is this the job of the courts, or Parliaments and

20 April 2020

The coronavirus pandemic is an extraordinary threat to public health, and governments around Australia have taken appropriate, and so far successful, steps to protect the population. As the crisis develops, further measures may be required. For example, one aspect of the pandemic that has been overlooked is the danger that it poses to prisoners. Coronavirus can pose a terrible risk

19 November 2019

Over the past decade, Australia has seen an unsustainable rise in the rate and cost of incarceration. Nationally, the incarceration rate is at an all-time high of 217 per 100,000 adults, and prisons now cost taxpayers $4.6 billion every year (including capital costs). This increase in spending on prisons creates a trade-off with other government priorities, like policing. Six years

5 September 2019

“The rapid growth of incarceration in Western Australia is imposing significant costs on taxpayers without improving community safety,” said Andrew Bushnell, Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs. “Parliament should act now to reform the criminal justice system by expanding alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders and emphasizing the importance of employment for offender rehabilitation.” Mr Bushnell leads the

14 May 2018

This paper draws on data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Productivity Commission, and a range of studies conducted into the effectiveness of community corrections. It finds that: Community corrections is growing rapidly. The national community corrections population has grown by 18.6 percent in the last two years, and 30.2 percent since 2007. (Figure 1, Table 2) The community