Page 5210 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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By comparison with other jurisdictions, the ACT has a narrow range of sentencing options. This Government is therefore investigating extending available options such as possible work release and home detention schemes. These will enable the ACT to have more control over the supervision and rehabilitation of its offenders and also lower our payments to New South Wales. Such options require careful planning and community consultation and research into experience elsewhere if they are to be effective and worthwhile programs. Community and judicial support for these alternatives is essential to their success.
With this in mind, the Government has agreed to appoint a ministerial advisory committee to undertake a review of corrective services and juvenile justice and to prepare a five-year strategic plan. This committee has the following terms of reference: developing alternative strategies in a climate of fiscal restraint; broadening the range of corrective services programs and sentencing options to reduce reliance on gaols and offender institutions; alternative custodial options for the residual prisoner population; the future of the Belconnen Remand Centre and Quamby Juvenile Detention Centre; fostering community involvement in the delivery of corrective services programs; strategies to prevent crime and offending, particularly for young people; measures to improve ACT service, including training, research and evaluation to ensure appropriate standards and services.
The committee will provide an initial report by the end of March 1991, with a final report by October 1991. I am pleased to announce that the committee will be chaired by Mr David Chandler, who is the founding principal of the project management organisation Australia Pacific Projects Corporation and who has expertise in management systems and in delivery of project outcomes within time and budgetary constraints.
Other members of the committee have a wide range of expertise in the criminal justice system and will provide valuable input into the review. They include the deputy chair, Professor David Hambly, professor of law and member of the ACT Parole Board; Mr Ron Cahill, the Chief Magistrate of the ACT; Mr David Biles, deputy director of the Australian Institute of Criminology and consultant to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Deaths in Custody; Dr Hugh Veness, forensic psychiatrist; Ms Kass Hancock, ACT Council of Social Service; Dr Hugh Smith, president of Civic Rehabilitation Committee; Ms Anna Kleber, member of the ACT Parole Board; and Ms Barbara George and other representatives detailed on the paper I table. Mr Speaker, I table the membership of the committee for the information of the Assembly.
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