Investigation Into the Rehabilitation And
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Investigation into the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners in Victoria September 2015 Ordered to be published Victorian government printer Session 2014-15 P.P. No. 94 Letter to the Legislative Contents Council and the Legislative Foreword 2 Assembly Executive summary 4 Investigation scope and methodology 10 To The prisons landscape 12 The Honourable the President of the Legislative Pressures on the justice system 17 Council Impact on the justice system 24 and Other consequences 29 The Honourable the Speaker of the Legislative Links between disadvantage and offending 32 Assembly Over-representation 34 Prison services and support 36 Assessment and case management 36 Pursuant to sections 25 and 25AA of the Ombudsman Act 1973, I present to Parliament my Offending behaviour programs 48 report into an Investigation into the rehabilitation Alcohol and other drug programs 56 and reintegration of prisoners in Victoria. Mental health treatment and support 60 Education, skills and training 63 Prisoner groups with particular needs 73 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners 74 Cognitive disability 87 Deborah Glass OBE Women 94 Young adult prisoners 97 Ombudsman 16 September 2015 Transition, pre- and post-release support 102 Role of family support in the transition process 121 Support provided by Corrections Victoria 124 Alternative approaches 129 Links between prison and reoffending 129 Current efforts to reduce recidivism 131 Experience in other jurisdictions 136 Implications for Victoria 142 Conclusions 145 Diversion programs 146 Sentencing, parole and bail 147 Improving prisons 147 Support for prisoner groups with particular needs 150 Pre- and post-release support 152 Recommendations 153 Acronyms 158 1 Foreword Add to this the Charter of Human Rights and The first prison I ever saw had inscribed on it Responsibilities Act, which gives my office a CEASE TO DO EVIL: LEARN TO DO WELL; specific function to investigate human rights but as the inscription was on the outside, breaches. One of those rights is to humane the prisoners could not read it. treatment when deprived of liberty. George Bernard Shaw In this investigation I was not seeking to, and indeed could not, investigate the wider criminal justice system, but it is simply not possible to This year, for the first time, the cost of our look at the effectiveness of rehabilitation and prison system will exceed $1 billion. This reflects reintegration of prisoners in Victoria without the massive growth in the prison population considering the social context. in the past five years. As prisons have become The statistics are compelling: the average more crowded, the response has been to build prisoner, male or female, did not complete more of them. high school, was unemployed at the time of While conditions inside prisons deteriorate committing the crime and had a history of under pressure, the rate of return is increasing. substance abuse. Many female prisoners are Given the cost of the burgeoning population victims of some form of abuse, and over 40 per behind bars, there is a justifiable view that cent are homeless upon release. The children prison is, as former British Home Secretary Sir of prisoners are six times more likely to be Douglas Hurd put it, ‘an expensive way of giving imprisoned themselves – so it’s not just this the public a break from offenders, before they generation where the impact is hard felt. How return to commit more crimes’. do you address recidivism when prison is the What is the correctional system doing to place some people feel safest? And how can rehabilitate offenders – to improve public safety we reintegrate former prisoners into a society and reduce the number of repeat offenders? where many have always been marginalised? Plainly, not enough. It is captured in a spiral The reasons for the increase in numbers and of rising crime rates and increasing prisoner cost are many, including increased rates of numbers, resulting in more and more victims reoffending and legislative changes affecting and exponential budget growth simply to hold parole, sentencing and bail. The focus of my the line. Building more prisons is not making investigation was the consequence of that us safer as a community. For such enormous increase on the prospects for rehabilitation. public investment, we should be seeing much The evidence is plain that heightened pressure better returns. on the system has resulted in reduced access Debate about the effectiveness of prisons in to programs and services – unsurprisingly, reducing crime and contributing to community accompanied by a rise in reoffending. safety has raged since the days when prisons The public expects violent offenders to serve were seen as a more civilised alternative to time, but incarceration is only a temporary hangings or transportation to the colonies. solution in over 99 per cent of cases. The And prisons have long been a concern of the corrections system must work better to Victorian Ombudsman. Sir John Dillon, the first rehabilitate and reintegrate prisoners. Ombudsman, said in his first annual report, 40 Prison is also the most expensive response we years ago: ‘I was surprised at the large number have to criminal behaviour. We know that some of complaints which I received from prisoners’. alternatives work – independent evaluations It is no longer surprising. If the role of the of diversion programs confirm their positive Ombudsman is to address the imbalance of impact both on recidivism and the public power between the individual and the state, purse. This is a strong evidence base on which that imbalance is at its most stark when people to improve outcomes for the community, the are deprived of their freedom by the state. economy and the convicted. 2 www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au There is good practice, both within and outside Many of these developments began during this our prisons, but it’s a patchwork of measures investigation; while I encourage and support in a mix of locations. Why are they not more those initiatives, it is too soon to evaluate their available across Victoria? effectiveness. The effects of increasing pressure within the There are valuable lessons to be learned from the system are particularly apparent in some social experience of other jurisdictions in Australia and groups. Although both women and Aboriginal overseas. Even parts of the United States, which and Torres Strait Islander prisoners represent a incarcerates more people than anywhere else, comparatively small percentage of the prison have adopted a ‘justice reinvestment’ approach, population, their numbers are growing at a greater diverting funds from prisons to initiatives rate. Few women in custody are serious violent designed to reduce offending. A New Zealand offenders, most have caring responsibilities, initiative is on target to reduce reoffending by 25 many are the victims of violent relationships and per cent, already resulting in thousands of fewer offend under the influence of drugs or to support victims. Extrapolating this experience to Victoria drug use. Specific services within prisons are would mean not only fewer victims, but potential limited, so the solutions must lie in alternatives savings of hundreds of millions of dollars a year to incarceration and greater support, including from the corrections budget. transitional support and housing. While this investigation focussed on Corrections Similarly, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Victoria, it is patently clear that long-term Islander prisoners, targeted programs and solutions do not lie within the walls of our prisons services are limited and constantly under or with a single government department. The pressure. Given the weight of evidence of successful innovations elsewhere have come as the level of disadvantage and their over- a result of a concerted whole-of-government representation in custody, there is a compelling response. The state needs a comprehensive case for more action. As Aboriginal and Torres approach – across the justice system, education, Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner health and housing – to focus on the causes of Mick Gooda has pointed out, it is shameful that crime rather than its consequences. Offenders we do better at keeping Aboriginal people in need to be dealt with in ways that make it less prisons than we do in schools. likely they will reoffend – through alternatives to imprisonment where appropriate, or through Recidivism rates are highest among young a prison system with a greater focus on people aged 18 to 24, with over half returning to rehabilitation. The community too, must play its prison within two years, thus setting up a cycle part in supporting reintegration. of offending that may well remain unbroken through a lifetime. Despite a demonstrable This issue is no longer at the margins. It has effect on recidivism rates, Victoria has only one profound implications for public safety, the dedicated youth unit, housing 35 of the 751 state’s economy and the sort of society we young offenders in adult prisons. Interventions create. While the public is understandably targeted towards young offenders – through horrified by violent crime, we cannot keep diversion or within the prison system – provide pouring public funds into a correctional system a significant opportunity to break the cycle that is not making us safer. If we continue in this before it becomes entrenched. way, current trends in both prisoner numbers and cost mean it will not be long before we have Corrections Victoria has recently embarked to make hard decisions between prison beds or on a substantial program of reform to address hospital beds, better schools or more security. shortcomings in its assessment and case management of prisoners, and to validate the Deborah Glass efficacy of programs. It is working with other Ombudsman agencies to provide better post-release support. foreword 3 Executive summary 1. In July 2014, I announced that I was 5. There are also growing numbers of investigating rehabilitation and transitional prisoners in custody eligible for parole services for prisoners in Victoria.