Page 1181 - Week 04 - Thursday, 26 March 2015
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some detainees who may have spent many years incarcerated now spending more time in the community, time spent outside of jail, and positively engaging with the appropriate support services. Just as we are optimistic about Des and Marly, we are optimistic about our extended through-care program. It is still too early to claim success, but things are promising.
I would like to turn to the justice reform and justice reinvestment strategies. The justice reform strategy is a two-year project examining how sentencing operates in the territory and how sentencing law and practice can be improved to deliver on the government’s priority of delivering a fair and safe community. The strategy provides an exciting opportunity to address the challenges in the sentencing arena, such as reducing recidivism and promoting community safety.
The early work of the strategy is focusing on the move away from periodic detention as a way of serving a sentence of imprisonment and introducing a more effective and modern community-based sentencing alternative. As the strategy progresses, it will consider broader proposals for sentencing and related reforms. While the lead minister for the strategy is the Attorney-General, as the Minister for Justice I am closely involved in the work and Corrective Services is involved through a variety of mechanisms. (Extension of time granted.)
Corrective Services is represented on the advisory group for the justice reform strategy as a key stakeholder. The role of the advisory group is to provide guidance and assistance to the strategy. It consists of academics, legal professionals, representatives from key government directorates and representatives of groups with an interest or involvement in the justice system. The strategy is also being informed by a series of theme-based core design workshops. The workshops provide an opportunity for in-depth consideration of some of the key opportunities and challenges in sentencing.
Participants are invited based on their experience and expertise in relation to the particular theme, which allows the strategy to access ideas and know-how available in the territory. The first two workshops have focused on the themes of therapeutic jurisprudence and intensive corrections orders, and both have included one or more representatives from Corrective Services.
Officers from JACS, including Corrective Services, have visited corrections and policy officers in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland to discuss their experience of community-based orders such as intensive corrections orders. These visits have provided not only the opportunity to learn from these states but also the occasion to promote communication between policy and operational areas within the Justice and Community Safety Directorate. Good communication is essential to support the transition away from periodic detention, with the development of good policy to underpin a new community-based sentencing option, and as Corrective Services develops the operational aspects of that new sentence.
There are areas of overlap between the work of the justice reform strategy and the justice reinvestment strategy. The justice reinvestment strategy is a four-year project which aims to develop a smarter, more cost-effective approach to improving criminal justice outcomes by reducing crime, improving public safety and strengthening
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