Value of a justice reinvestment approach to criminal justice in Australia
Information about the Inquiry
On 26 November 2012 the Senate referred the following matter to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committees for inquiry and report.
The value of a justice reinvestment approach to criminal justice in Australia, with particular reference to:
(a) the drivers behind the past 30 years of growth in the Australian imprisonment rate;
(b) the economic and social costs of imprisonment;
(c) the over-representation of disadvantaged groups within Australian prisons, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and people experiencing mental ill-health, cognitive disability and hearing loss;
(d) the cost, availability and effectiveness of alternatives to imprisonment, including prevention, early intervention, diversionary and rehabilitation measures;
(e) the methodology and objectives of justice reinvestment;
(f) the benefits of, and challenges to, implementing a justice reinvestment approach in Australia;
(g) the collection, availability and sharing of data necessary to implement a justice reinvestment approach;
(h) the implementation and effectiveness of justice reinvestment in other countries, including the United States of America;
(i) the scope for federal government action which would encourage the adoption of justice reinvestment policies by state and territory governments; and
(j) any other related matters.
Submissions should be received by 15 March 2013. The reporting date is 20 June 2013.
The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online or sent by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.
Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:
Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries and can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3560 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5794 or by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.
Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.
For further information, contact: Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia