Smarter Justice campaign’s appeal for evidence-based policy ignored

Business and legal experts bust the myths around tough on crime measures, but government pushes ahead with bail changes

Desperate calls from Territory business leaders and legal experts for evidence-based approaches to crime have been met with fresh ‘tough on crime’ bail announcements.

Within 24 hours, the NT’s top legal officer has gone from celebrating efforts to reduce prison numbers, to backing tougher bail conditions.

Attorney-General Chansey Paech attended and spoke at the launch of the Smarter Justice for Safer Communities campaign launch on Monday.

The campaign surveyed 300 people and found 70 per cent of respondents would support policies that try to break the cycle of offending, rather than extending prison sentences and adding more police.

On Monday Mr Paech said the campaign went to the “heart” of the issues facing the Territory by addressing how Territorians ended up in jail.

NT Attorney-General Chansey Paech spoke at the launch of the Smarter Justice for Safer Communities campaign, a Territory-wide initiative to tackle crime and offending rates. Picture: Sierra Haigh

But the day after the Smarter Justice campaign launch, Chief Minister Natasha Fyles and Mr Paech announced urgent bail legislation to set the presumption against bail for violent offences involving a weapon.

“The safety of our community is paramount and these changes are in line with community expectations,” Mr Paech said on Tuesday.

The bail announcement comes a week after 20-year-old bottleshop worker Declan Laverty was fatally stabbed, while prisons reach record-breaking levels with around 1 per cent of the entire Territory population behind bars.

Northern Territory Aboriginal Justice Agreement governance committee co-chair Olga Havnen

called proposed bail law changes “a recipe for disaster”.

“What happened in that incident was just terribly, terribly tragic. It’s shaken everyone up across the Territory,” she said.

“But it takes a more strategic and enlightened approach about what works — we know locking people up does not work.”

Northern Territory Aboriginal Justice Agreement (NTAJA) co-chair Olga Havnen spoke at the launch of the Smarter Justice for Safer Communities campaign. Picture: Sierra Haigh

Justice Reform Initiative member Richard Coates said despite years of ‘tough on crime’ politics, Territory homes, workplaces and communities were becoming less safe.

“While tough on crime after disturbing instances of criminal offending, might make us feel good in the short term,” Mr Coates said.

“The evidence shows they do not deter offenders from committing that senseless alcohol and drug infused crimes.

“Our longstanding attempt to police and imprison our way out of this problem has obviously not worked.”

Mr Coates said it was time to invest in initiatives that sought to break the cycle of imprisonment, not bigger prisons or longer sentences.

Mr Coates said he had watched the impact of the Territory’s policy successes and failures over nearly five decades as a former defence lawyer, magistrate, director of public prosecutions, justice department chief executive, and most recently as the “Tsar of booze” as liquor commissioner.

Mr Coates said one of the most pervasive myths about crime was that judges were reluctant to lock people up.

“Our judges are jailing Territorians at five times the national rate,” he said.

For nine of the past 10 years, Territory prisons have been running over capacity, according to the latest Productivity Commission data.

In 2021-22 the Territory was running at 114 per cent over its prison design capacity.

Mr Coates said the second myth was that prisons were good at rehabilitating people.

He said “frequent flyers” — prisoners with previous experience behind bars — made up 75 per cent of all people in Territory jails.

While he said there was “no silver bullet”, Mr Coates said programs in Groote Eylandt had reduced youth crime by 95 per cent, while an Alice Springs women’s program had a 75 per cent rehabilitation rate.

NT Chamber of Commerce chief operating officer Nicole Walsh also championed new approaches to the Territory’s crime crisis.

Ms Walsh said while businesses were bearing the brunt of crime, they also knew community-led approaches were needed.

“We want to make sure that the business community is heard, but equally to be part of the solution,” Ms Walsh said.

NT Chamber of Commerce Chief Operating Officer Nicole Walsh spoke at the launch of the Smarter Justice for Safer Communities campaign, a Territory-wide initiative to tackle crime and offending rates. George Brown Botanical Gardens, March 27, 2023. Picture: Sierra Haigh

The Alice Springs-based leader said the call for change from businesses was deeply personal, with many either a victim of crime, or as witnesses to rising rates of anti-social behaviour.

“We’re going through a really hard period at the moment …(but) it’s not only the business community, it’s our community as well,” she said.

Ms Walsh said businesses did not just want stopgap measures, but short, medium and long term crime-reduction plans from the government.

She said the Smart Justice initiatives were not just narrowing in on long-term crime reduction, with six-month programs already producing results.

Ms Havnen said these effective alternatives to custody needed political and financial support, and pushed for more partnerships with Territory, commonwealth and philanthropic trusts.

Mr Paech said all levels of government would be working to evaluate how to invest in the Smarter Justice programs.

Originally published as Smarter Justice campaign’s appeal for evidence-based policy ignored