‘Monumental backstep’: Tas legal leaders call on the government to abandon northern prison
A former governor, chief magistrate, premier and party leader are among those to have labelled a proposed Tasmanian prison a “monumental backstep,” as the state’s incarceration rate continues to climb.
Tasmania
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Former Governor Kate Warner has thrown her weight behind calls for the state government to ditch plans for a new $270m prison in the state’s North.
Professor Warner is one of a number of high-profile Tasmanians who have signed on to the national Justice Reform Initiative, along with the likes of former chief magistrate Michael Hill, former Premier Lara Giddings, and former Greens leader Christine Milne.
On Wednesday, the initiative is releasing a report into what it claims is over-reliance on incarceration in Tasmania, while urging the government to abandon the Northern Correctional Facility, which is expected to be built on the Ashley Youth Detention Centre site.
Professor Warner said she had been involved in criminal justice issues for decades, including as a former member of the Parole Board of Tasmania, the Sentencing Advisory Council and as a criminologist.
“So I’m well aware that jailing is failing and we need a different approach. Our imprisonment rate continues to climb – by 36 per cent over the past decade despite stable crime rates,” she said.
“Rather than building a new prison, we need to invest in evidence-based alternatives.”
Professor Warner said she supported the initiative’s goal to reduce the incarceration rate by 50 per cent by 2030.
The initiative is calling on the state government to instead invest $270m in a Breaking the Cycle Fund, including programs addressing early prevention, court diversion, and specialist courts that address disadvantage.
Mr Hill, in an opinion piece for the Mercury, wrote that building the proposed northern prison would be a “monumental backstep”.
He said this was especially true in light of the decision to close Ashley as it was “costly, harmful, and ineffective”.
The initiative’s report outlines a number of interstate and overseas programs focused on crime reduction, mainstream court alternatives, First Nations programs, and post-release projects with a proven history, which the group says could work well in Tasmania.
The report also notes Tasmania spends more than $117m each year incarcerating adults and children, or $432.27 per adult per day, the second-highest in Australia.
It said more than two-thirds of people in Tasmanian prisons had been there before, and that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults were six-and-a-half times more likely to be incarcerated than the non-Indigenous population.
Initiative executive director Mindy Sotiri said building new prisons was “costly and ineffective” when dealing with both crime and rising prison numbers.
“Building an enormous prison will only serve to fill more prison beds, leaving Tasmania with a more harmful and expensive system that is ultimately failing to make the community safer,” she said.
The initiative, which also includes Indigenous leader Rodney Dillon, prisoner advocate Greg Barns SC, Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds and criminologist Rob White, is backed by a list of more than 120 “eminent Australians” including Aboriginal leaders, two former Governor-Generals, and former High Court judges.
Elise Archer, Minister for Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the state government remained committed to the Northern Correctional Facility, which it says will provide better rehabilitation and reintegration outcomes for prisoners and their families – especially in the state’s North.
Ms Archer said the prison would complement the government’s existing work to lower the rate of reoffending, with an increase in services to rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders into the community.
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Originally published as ‘Monumental backstep’: Tas legal leaders call on the government to abandon northern prison
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