A recent review from the Office of Custodial Services (OICS) states the Department of Justice has implemented a positive initiative that identifies and helps people in custody with an intellectual disability.
The report adheres to the Royal Disability Commission who are addressing the challenges through positive initiatives including early identification of the disabilities. The identification process includes the use of a functional impairment screening tool and has noted an increase in the number of individuals identified with possible cognitive impairments.
“The screening tool is undergoing a validation process ahead of information being shared with the custodial staff across youth and adult facilities.”
Director General Kylie Maj states that, “the Department is committed to identifying prisoners in custody for cognitive or intellectual impairments and enhancing their management, including participation in rehabilitation programs.”
The Criminal Law (Mental Impairment) Act 2023 that came into effect on 1 September runs along with the stated efforts of the Department’s commitment to protect the human rights of people with mental disabilities in the justice system.
The Department’s Corrective Services has launched a training program for staff that includes “raising awareness and providing them with the skills, knowledge and tools to manage and respond to this cohort in a sensitive manner,” Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce said.
Intellectual disabilities were found to be particularly prevalent in Western Australia’s youth custodial estate. The Department is collaborating with the Youth Detention State Forensic Mental Health Services to improve screening and assessment procedures for young offenders through a culturally appropriate screening program.
The Tasmanian Government has announced its intention to change its plans for the future of youth detention in Tasmania, but details are yet to be confirmed.
The recent Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings heard evidence of widespread abuse and harm at Ashley Youth Detention Centre, prompting the then-Premier Peter Gutwein to announce plans for its closure.
The Government had intended to replace the youth prison with five separate facilities across the state, including another detention centre in the south, two facilities for children on bail, and two supported residential facilities. However, since the proposed closure of Ashley was announced in 2021, there has been limited detail provided to the public about the development of the planned facilities.
Despite these plans, the Minister for Children and Youth Roger Jaensch has recently indicated a potential shift in youth justice policy. At a budget estimates hearing in early October, the Minister said the Government may instead focus on strengthening existing community-based supports for children rather than building new facilities.
While community services in Tasmania have cautiously welcomed this shift, they have stressed the need for urgent increases to current funding to provide children the support they need, highlighting the high level of unmet need for services – particularly housing – impacting young people’s wellbeing and involvement in the criminal legal system. Community leaders and experts also remain concerned about the safety of children who are currently detained at Ashley and have continued to call for expanded services to support their needs.
The state government will vote on amendments to South Australia's Sentencing Act 2017 after concerns were raised about Victim Impact Statements. The Commissioner for Victim Rights and victims’ advocates have told the government that victims are too often being denied the opportunity to present a Victim Impact Statement in court, causing significant distress.
Commissioner for Victims’ Rights Sarah Quick highlighted the importance of victim impact statements, stating that “having the opportunity to explain the harm in their own words can help victims regain some sense of power and control.”
Currently, the Act states that a victim may give a statement if they have experienced an injury, loss or damage related to an “indictable offence”. This condition has meant that if the defendant is charged with an offence that does not have a causative link to the injury, loss or damage – for instance being charged with driving without due care rather than dangerous driving causing death or serious injury – the victim is unable to present their statement.
The amendment to the Act will include a new clause, which "allows a person, who has suffered injury, loss or damage, from that death or injury, to provide a written personal statement", which removes the requirement for a causative link with the indictable offence.
The Commissioner welcomed the reforms, stating that they “demonstrate the importance of victim’s rights to be heard during the sentencing process.”
A 45-year-old corrective services officer has become the first person in NSW to be subjected to electronic monitoring under new tough bail laws announced in May.
The new laws would target people charged with serious domestic violence offences.
Alleged perpetrators will wear ankle bracelets and have their movement tracked.
In addition to being monitored electronically, the new laws also propose that the presumption of bail would be reversed, meaning someone charged with domestic violence must show cause as to why they should not be detained.
The alleged perpetrator, who worked at a prison in western NSW, faced a local court on Friday for five charges of sexual intercourse without consent and one charge of aggravated sexual assault.
All six charges were alleged to be acts of domestic violence.
He is also not allowed within 500 kilometres of the alleged victim’s regional town, except for specific court proceedings.
A recent review from the Office of Custodial Services (OICS) states the Department of Justice has implemented a positive initiative that identifies and helps people in custody with an intellectual disability.
The report adheres to the Royal Disability Commission who are addressing the challenges through positive initiatives including early identification of the disabilities. The identification process includes the use of a functional impairment screening tool and has noted an increase in the number of individuals identified with possible cognitive impairments.
“The screening tool is undergoing a validation process ahead of information being shared with the custodial staff across youth and adult facilities.”
Director General Kylie Maj states that, “the Department is committed to identifying prisoners in custody for cognitive or intellectual impairments and enhancing their management, including participation in rehabilitation programs.”
The Criminal Law (Mental Impairment) Act 2023 that came into effect on 1 September runs along with the stated efforts of the Department’s commitment to protect the human rights of people with mental disabilities in the justice system.
The Department’s Corrective Services has launched a training program for staff that includes “raising awareness and providing them with the skills, knowledge and tools to manage and respond to this cohort in a sensitive manner,” Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce said.
Intellectual disabilities were found to be particularly prevalent in Western Australia’s youth custodial estate. The Department is collaborating with the Youth Detention State Forensic Mental Health Services to improve screening and assessment procedures for young offenders through a culturally appropriate screening program.
The Tasmanian Government has announced its intention to change its plans for the future of youth detention in Tasmania, but details are yet to be confirmed.
The recent Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings heard evidence of widespread abuse and harm at Ashley Youth Detention Centre, prompting the then-Premier Peter Gutwein to announce plans for its closure.
The Government had intended to replace the youth prison with five separate facilities across the state, including another detention centre in the south, two facilities for children on bail, and two supported residential facilities. However, since the proposed closure of Ashley was announced in 2021, there has been limited detail provided to the public about the development of the planned facilities.
Despite these plans, the Minister for Children and Youth Roger Jaensch has recently indicated a potential shift in youth justice policy. At a budget estimates hearing in early October, the Minister said the Government may instead focus on strengthening existing community-based supports for children rather than building new facilities.
While community services in Tasmania have cautiously welcomed this shift, they have stressed the need for urgent increases to current funding to provide children the support they need, highlighting the high level of unmet need for services – particularly housing – impacting young people’s wellbeing and involvement in the criminal legal system. Community leaders and experts also remain concerned about the safety of children who are currently detained at Ashley and have continued to call for expanded services to support their needs.
The state government will vote on amendments to South Australia's Sentencing Act 2017 after concerns were raised about Victim Impact Statements. The Commissioner for Victim Rights and victims’ advocates have told the government that victims are too often being denied the opportunity to present a Victim Impact Statement in court, causing significant distress.
Commissioner for Victims’ Rights Sarah Quick highlighted the importance of victim impact statements, stating that “having the opportunity to explain the harm in their own words can help victims regain some sense of power and control.”
Currently, the Act states that a victim may give a statement if they have experienced an injury, loss or damage related to an “indictable offence”. This condition has meant that if the defendant is charged with an offence that does not have a causative link to the injury, loss or damage – for instance being charged with driving without due care rather than dangerous driving causing death or serious injury – the victim is unable to present their statement.
The amendment to the Act will include a new clause, which "allows a person, who has suffered injury, loss or damage, from that death or injury, to provide a written personal statement", which removes the requirement for a causative link with the indictable offence.
The Commissioner welcomed the reforms, stating that they “demonstrate the importance of victim’s rights to be heard during the sentencing process.”
A 45-year-old corrective services officer has become the first person in NSW to be subjected to electronic monitoring under new tough bail laws announced in May.
The new laws would target people charged with serious domestic violence offences.
Alleged perpetrators will wear ankle bracelets and have their movement tracked.
In addition to being monitored electronically, the new laws also propose that the presumption of bail would be reversed, meaning someone charged with domestic violence must show cause as to why they should not be detained.
The alleged perpetrator, who worked at a prison in western NSW, faced a local court on Friday for five charges of sexual intercourse without consent and one charge of aggravated sexual assault.
All six charges were alleged to be acts of domestic violence.
He is also not allowed within 500 kilometres of the alleged victim’s regional town, except for specific court proceedings.
Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre is the first in Queensland to trial newly-implemented body scanning technology that can detect contrabands without requiring female prisoners to remove their clothing.
The scanner is roughly the same size as airport security and can detect weapons, drugs and mobiles.
This means a possible end to invasive and traumatic searches of vulnerable female prisoners, with better results than traditional strip searches.
This came after a report on the traumatising experiences girls and women had with invasive strip searches in the criminal justice system.
Queensland Corrective Services Commissioner Paul Stewart APM believes that the introduction of non-invasive screening technology will provide better support for all officers and prisoners involved.
“[Queensland Corrective Services] has a zero-tolerance for contraband entering our correctional centres,” Stewart said.
“The trial of the technology remains consistent with the recommendations of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce final report, focusing on the introduction of non-invasive screening technology and ending the practice of removing clothing searches for women prisoners.”
Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre will trial the x-ray body scanner technology for three months on women, and an evaluation report will be produced to facilitate its rollout to other centres.
The newly elected Country Liberal Party have begun to implement their law-and-order agenda, with the government officially introducing legislation to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10 this October. The move comes as the government begins a series of sweeping crime-focussed reforms including introducing breach of bail as an offence for children, expanding the presumption against bail to include more offences, and introducing tougher penalties for certain crimes, including mandatory sentencing for assaults against emergency workers.
Critics have voiced concerns about the impact of these changes, noting the limited evidence that such tough-on-crime approaches actually work to address root causes of crime.
As reported by the Guardian, the National Children’s Commissioner, Anne Hollonds, has criticised in particular moves to lower the age of criminal responsibility:
“We all want to live in safe communities, but this plan by the NT government goes against what all the evidence has shown we need to do to achieve that”
“The younger a child comes into contact with the criminal justice system, the more likely they will go on to commit more serious and violent crimes. “Lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years will not make communities safer, it will only see rates of child offending increase. These are primary school age children, and harsh, punitive responses are not the answer.”
The Victorian government recently provided a strongly worded commitment to reduce the costs of phone calls in prisons. The commitment is part of the Inquiry into Victoria’s Child Protection and Criminal Justice Systems: Yoorrook for Justice Victorian Government Implementation Progress Report. The report is part of the government’s response to recommendations from the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the first formal truth-telling process into injustices experienced by First Peoples in Victoria.
The relevant section under ‘Reforming the Criminal Justice System’ reads:
Recommendation 42 calls for government to ensure people in prison and youth justice centres, including Aboriginal people, can make telephone calls for free or at no greater cost than the general community. In response to this recommendation, government will subsidise phone calls in the short term for people in prison so they can better connect with their loved ones. Longer-term solutions are also being explored through negotiations with commercial providers of prison telephone services. A free call allowance is already available in Youth Justice centres.
At this stage, About Time has no further information about how or when the government will start subsidising phone calls.
Between 2005 and 2010, Nicola Gobbo represented various individuals from Melbourne's underworld, including Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel. She was also an informer for Victoria Police, providing the police with information about her current, and previous clients.
Notwithstanding Ms Gobbo's breach of her professional obligations, a royal commission investigated Victoria Police's conduct and found that 1011 convictions or findings of guilt may have been impacted by Ms Gobbo's use as a human source.
Ms Gobbo has now sued the Victorian Government for damages to her health and career due to the Victorian Police using her as a police informer, and revealing her identity as Lawyer X. Ms Gobbo's team claims that the Police groomed her and used their position of power to exploit Ms Gobbo's vulnerabilities.
Ms Gobbo's trial began on 1 October 2024 and she has given evidence that she has developed PTSD having to live in isolation for the last six years, with Victoria Police threatening to take her children from her custody. The trial is ongoing.
This month saw 120 representatives gather in Canberra to urge governments to prioritise youth justice reform. The event was co-hosted by the National Children's Commissioner, Anne Hollands, and the Justice Reform Initiative. This event follows the release earlier this year of the Commissioner’s report, 'Help way earlier!’ How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing, which emphasises the urgent need to move away from punitive and ill-effective approaches to youth justice and instead prioritise approaches based on children’s rights and evidence.
The Commissioner has described the treatment of 10-year-olds in Australia’s justice system as one of the most urgent human rights issues facing Australia.
As reported by the National Indigenous Times, the Justice Reform Initiative chair Robert Tickner said Australia was failing its children with its approach to youth justice and that the Commissioner's report makes clear the Commonwealth needs to "step up and show national leadership".
"Too many children around Australia are managed in prisons, rather than receiving the support and care and opportunity they need in the community," Mr Tickner said.
Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre is the first in Queensland to trial newly-implemented body scanning technology that can detect contrabands without requiring female prisoners to remove their clothing.
The scanner is roughly the same size as airport security and can detect weapons, drugs and mobiles.
This means a possible end to invasive and traumatic searches of vulnerable female prisoners, with better results than traditional strip searches.
This came after a report on the traumatising experiences girls and women had with invasive strip searches in the criminal justice system.
Queensland Corrective Services Commissioner Paul Stewart APM believes that the introduction of non-invasive screening technology will provide better support for all officers and prisoners involved.
“[Queensland Corrective Services] has a zero-tolerance for contraband entering our correctional centres,” Stewart said.
“The trial of the technology remains consistent with the recommendations of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce final report, focusing on the introduction of non-invasive screening technology and ending the practice of removing clothing searches for women prisoners.”
Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre will trial the x-ray body scanner technology for three months on women, and an evaluation report will be produced to facilitate its rollout to other centres.
The newly elected Country Liberal Party have begun to implement their law-and-order agenda, with the government officially introducing legislation to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10 this October. The move comes as the government begins a series of sweeping crime-focussed reforms including introducing breach of bail as an offence for children, expanding the presumption against bail to include more offences, and introducing tougher penalties for certain crimes, including mandatory sentencing for assaults against emergency workers.
Critics have voiced concerns about the impact of these changes, noting the limited evidence that such tough-on-crime approaches actually work to address root causes of crime.
As reported by the Guardian, the National Children’s Commissioner, Anne Hollonds, has criticised in particular moves to lower the age of criminal responsibility:
“We all want to live in safe communities, but this plan by the NT government goes against what all the evidence has shown we need to do to achieve that”
“The younger a child comes into contact with the criminal justice system, the more likely they will go on to commit more serious and violent crimes. “Lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years will not make communities safer, it will only see rates of child offending increase. These are primary school age children, and harsh, punitive responses are not the answer.”
The Victorian government recently provided a strongly worded commitment to reduce the costs of phone calls in prisons. The commitment is part of the Inquiry into Victoria’s Child Protection and Criminal Justice Systems: Yoorrook for Justice Victorian Government Implementation Progress Report. The report is part of the government’s response to recommendations from the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the first formal truth-telling process into injustices experienced by First Peoples in Victoria.
The relevant section under ‘Reforming the Criminal Justice System’ reads:
Recommendation 42 calls for government to ensure people in prison and youth justice centres, including Aboriginal people, can make telephone calls for free or at no greater cost than the general community. In response to this recommendation, government will subsidise phone calls in the short term for people in prison so they can better connect with their loved ones. Longer-term solutions are also being explored through negotiations with commercial providers of prison telephone services. A free call allowance is already available in Youth Justice centres.
At this stage, About Time has no further information about how or when the government will start subsidising phone calls.
Between 2005 and 2010, Nicola Gobbo represented various individuals from Melbourne's underworld, including Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel. She was also an informer for Victoria Police, providing the police with information about her current, and previous clients.
Notwithstanding Ms Gobbo's breach of her professional obligations, a royal commission investigated Victoria Police's conduct and found that 1011 convictions or findings of guilt may have been impacted by Ms Gobbo's use as a human source.
Ms Gobbo has now sued the Victorian Government for damages to her health and career due to the Victorian Police using her as a police informer, and revealing her identity as Lawyer X. Ms Gobbo's team claims that the Police groomed her and used their position of power to exploit Ms Gobbo's vulnerabilities.
Ms Gobbo's trial began on 1 October 2024 and she has given evidence that she has developed PTSD having to live in isolation for the last six years, with Victoria Police threatening to take her children from her custody. The trial is ongoing.
This month saw 120 representatives gather in Canberra to urge governments to prioritise youth justice reform. The event was co-hosted by the National Children's Commissioner, Anne Hollands, and the Justice Reform Initiative. This event follows the release earlier this year of the Commissioner’s report, 'Help way earlier!’ How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing, which emphasises the urgent need to move away from punitive and ill-effective approaches to youth justice and instead prioritise approaches based on children’s rights and evidence.
The Commissioner has described the treatment of 10-year-olds in Australia’s justice system as one of the most urgent human rights issues facing Australia.
As reported by the National Indigenous Times, the Justice Reform Initiative chair Robert Tickner said Australia was failing its children with its approach to youth justice and that the Commissioner's report makes clear the Commonwealth needs to "step up and show national leadership".
"Too many children around Australia are managed in prisons, rather than receiving the support and care and opportunity they need in the community," Mr Tickner said.
Including tough bail laws being introduced in Victoria, the South Australian Government ruling out raising the age of criminal responsibility, a new parole board president appointed in Queensland and more.
The Australian Federal election is coming up. This is about voting for the Prime Minister and other federal politicians. It will be held on 3 May 2025.
“We can’t get information about how a party or candidate’s policies must impact prisoners,” Kelly told About Time. ‘Prison officers also will not provide us with any information as it is seen as political.”
Prison work differs across the country.
Help us get About Time off the ground. All donations are tax deductible and will be vital in providing an essential resource for people in prison and their loved ones.
Help us get About Time off the ground. All donations are tax deductible and will be vital in providing an essential resource for people in prison and their loved ones.
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