Page 4347 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Up front, I suppose the question is: should we mind? Are drugs such a problem in jail? Should we be worried about their use? The Greens may have a different approach to that, but the Australian Institute of Criminology will tell you that 37 per cent of Australian detainees attributed some of their offending to drugs, and 41 per cent of detainees in Australia are deemed to be dependent on drugs. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare will tell you that one in 10 prisoners are imprisoned for drug-related offences, most commonly drug trafficking and dealing. There are complicated reasons for committing criminal offences, but the Australian Institute of Criminology acknowledges that “at the very least, drug use makes criminal involvement worse”.
Yes, drug taking is a problem, and we need to eradicate it. But it increasingly seems that, with the pressure of the Greens and, increasingly, sections of the Labor Party, the view is that we want to give prisoners access to the implements to take their drugs. It is an odd approach, and it is one that is not supported by any corrections officer that I am aware of. Indeed, that is consistent with all corrections officers in all jurisdictions, not only in Australia but also in New Zealand. Some very strong words have been said about that.
Rehabilitation is the key. I think we all understand that. We all understand the importance of rehabilitation. That is for the wellbeing of the prisoner, his family or her family and society more generally. With many of these individuals, prison actually affords us an opportunity to provide effective rehabilitation. The education, training and health programs are just going to be redundant if the prisoner, the individual, is trapped in that cycle of addiction.
Reducing drug use is actually a cost benefit. If you look at research done by the US national institute of drug abuse, you will see that it estimates that every dollar spent on rehab programs reduces the cost to society for drug-related crimes by $4 to $7. On every measure, rehabilitation is the key. It is what we want to achieve. But let me be very clear: it is impossible to do when you have got ready access to drugs. You cannot have rehabilitation when you have got ready access to drugs in the jail, because detoxification is the first step in any effective rehabilitation program.
The ACT corrections mission statement is:
To protect the community by providing a safe, secure and humane correctional system which encourages offenders to rehabilitate.
But how is that even possible if drugs are so readily available, if the people we are trying to rehabilitate are using and have access to drugs?
The Liberal Party’s approach to this is to have zero tolerance to drugs in jail. We are realists and we understand that keeping drugs out of jail is a complex and difficult task, but seeing drugs in jail should be the exception; it should not be the commonplace that it appears to be here in the ACT. It is very clear that on this issue we have a very different approach from the Greens and from Labor with regard to tolerance, or a lack of tolerance, of drugs in the jail.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video