Law Council of Australia

Resources

Value of a Justice Reinvestment Approach to Criminal Justice in Australia

Submission Date: 22 March 2013

The Law Council of Australia provided a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee (the Committee) as part of its inquiry into the value of a justice reinvestment approach to criminal justice in Australia (the inquiry).

Justice reinvestment has been mentioned in a number of reports in recent years as a potential model that Australia could adopt as an alternative means of delivering justice. Indeed, in its report on its inquiry into Access to Justice in 2009, this Committee approved justice reinvestment as a “concept to divert funds from incarceration to community-based programs and services that address the underlying causes of crime”,1 and recommended that “the federal, state and territory governments recognise the potential benefits of justice reinvestment, and develop and fund a justice reinvestment pilot program for the criminal justice system.”2

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs expressed a similar view in its report on its inquiry into the high level of involvement of Indigenous juveniles and young adults in the criminal justice system in 2011, where it noted its support for the principles of justice reinvestment and recommended that “governments focus their efforts on early intervention and diversionary programs and that further research be conducted to investigate the justice reinvestment approach in Australia.” 3

In addition to this, justice reinvestment was also discussed by the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma AO, in his 2009 Social Justice Report. In that report, Mr Calma observed that justice reinvestment could become a “very powerful tool for ensuring that Indigenous Australians are socially included”,4 and suggested that justice reinvestment may provide a framework to address the over-representation of Indigenous juveniles and adults in the criminal justice system.5

1 Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, Report of Inquiry into Access to Justice, 8 December 2009, p. xviii. Available from http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=legcon_ctte/completed_ inquiries/2008-10/access_to_justice/report/index.htm
2 Ibid., Recommendation 21, p.xxiii.
3 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Doing Time – Time for Doing: Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system,’ 20 June 2011, Recommendation 40. Available from http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=atsi a/sentencing/report.htm
4 T. Calma, Australian Human Rights Commission, (2009). 2009 Social Justice Report – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, p.5. Available from http://humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/sj_report/sjreport09/pdf/sjr_2009_web.pdf (2009 Social Justice Report)
5 Ibid., p.41.

Last Updated on 30/04/2025

Share

Related Documents
Tags

Most recent items


Trending Items