OARS Offenders Aid And Rehabilitation Services Of S.A. Inc.

7/11/2008 OARS SA released its report about the costs of Incarceration during the OARS SA Annual General Meeting on the 6th November 2008. Press Release.

10/11/2008 The Attorney's General of Australia have decided to standardise Spent Convictions legislation across the country. On December 1st a discussion paper will be released by the Australian Government and distributed for comment seeking opinion about uniform laws. OARS SA has been advocating for this change for many years. We welcome the opportunity to put our case for introducing Spent Convictions Legislation in South Australia. We will pay careful attention to the rights of victims in our thinking and proposals. For far too long, committing a minor criminal offence has been a life long sentence, with little hope of living it down and leaving it behind. The current trend for employers to demand Police Clearance Checks has made the problem even worse. Whilst this is a legitimate requirement for some jobs, and is to be encouraged in order to protect children, as with many changes to custom and practice, unintended consequences have occurred. Many people have been discriminated against on the basis of a minor offence committed years, and sometimes decades, ago.

7/11/2008 OARS SA held its 121st Annual General Meeting today at the Rydges South Park. Karen Grogan the Executive Director of SACOSS addressed the audience and summarised the report "Incarceration : Unsustainable costs and Diminishing Returns". The audience was completely engrossed as Karen outlined the costs associated with current Government policy of increased imprisonment. She highlighted the possible negative health impacts of imprisonment. A very conservative estimate shows that the costs of incarceration are likely to double in the next 10 years. The full report is available here. The Board of OARS SA was also elected and the Board will comprise Meredith Newman, Annabel Shinkfield, Aileen Dawson, Robert van Buuren, Russell Jamison, Professor Rick Sarre and Tom Kelsey. The OARS SA Annual Report for 2007-08 can be downloaded here. Annual Report

6/11/2008 OARS SA has released its report called "Incarceration : Unsustainable costs and Diminishing Returns" Find the Report here!

OARS SA has called upon the State Government to undertake an independent review of the criminal justice system once the current prison disturbance at Port Augusta Prison has settled down. OARS SA CEO Leigh Garrett today said that "Not only do we need the findings of the Correctional Services review into this current incident to be made public, the Government needs to sit down and take stock of its current criminal justice policy. An independent review needs to be commissioned because we have a Justice system in crisis."

6/11/2008 Channels 7 9 and 2 covered the OARS SA Annual General Meeting and the release of the report "Incarceration : Unsustainable costs and Diminishing Returns". OARS SA CEO Leigh Garrett also spoke with Radio 891 on the morning show.

27/09/2008 The OARS SA Chief Executive spent talked with Amanda Blair and callers about the prison disturbance at Port Augusta Prison and the implications for Justice Policy in this State. Amanda was of the view that we need to reduce prison numbers. Several callers expressed similar views.

20/08/2008 The issues associated with South Australia's high level of remand prisoners has again surfaced. Lean Byner on Radio 5AA asked the question "Why should we care about how remand prisoners are treated?" Dr Craig Raeside spoke about this, and the OARS SA perspective was also put to Leon by CEO Leigh Garrett. It seems to us that the critical issue about whether South Australians should care about the way we treat remandees, and all prisoners for that point, is that almost all are released back in to the community. The better the conditions, and the better the treatment they receive, the better citizens they will become after released. CEO Leigh Garrett also questioned the custom and practice associated assessing all remandees as High Security prisoners. Leigh made it clear that the Department for Correctional Services would only be placing remandees in G Division if their bahaviour warranted it or out of desparation for space. As a matter of interest, OARS SA has approached the Justice Department to fund a structured bail accommodation service, but this has been refused.

7/08/2008 Chris Kenny in the Advertiser 6/8/2008 (Minor crims deserve a prison break) further questions the relevance and effectiveness of our overuse of incarceration in this State. He could probably write an article every week questioning criminal justice systems that are manipulated by ignorant politicians across the world, who conceal the truth from the public, who create more victims of crime, and who destroy lives and the futures of offenders and their families. Here is a few searching questions the people of South Australia might ask both the Government and Opposition in SA in relation to their justice policies. Is South Australia the only State in Australia that still retains the right of politicians (through Executive Council) to make the final decisions about permitting parole? Is South Australia the only State that retains its Crime Statistics Bureau within the domain of the Attorney General's Department? Is the average length of prison sentence extremely low in South Australia because we churn through hundreds of prisoners on very short sentences? Are hundreds of people locked away in prison because they cannot find accommodation to gain legitimate Parole, legitimate Home Detention, or who cannot be bailed because of homelessness? Does the incarceration of parents devastate the futures of their children, who are the innocent secondary victims of crime? Do the children of offenders, who receive virtually no targeted support, go on to repeat the criminal lives of their parents? The responses of both major political parties in South Australia to these questions would make interesting reading.

6/08/2008 The new prisons being designed for Mobilong are apparently the most technologically advanced in Australia. So reports the Sunday Mail on Sunday 3rd August. This article is deeply unbalanced because it almost completely ignores the important requirement for offender treatment and rehabilitation. Some of the systems described in the article will enhance the lives of prisoners and visitors, provide less intrusive ways of searching visitors (thus maintaining dignity and reducing false positives) and possibly keep the community safer. They may ensure more humane care and they will improve the efficiency of the prisons. A really important question does remain unanswered however. When was the last escape attempt, or successful escape from behind the walls of a maximum or medium security prison, in South Australia? Escape attempts world-wide are now focussed during transport between prisons or between courts and prisons. We would do well to remember that the most critical factor in the success of any prison anywhere is the quality of the relationships developed between prison staff and those in their care. In fact prison security depends significantly on these relationships as well. The focus in this article on the so-called Supermax concept is unnecessary. Supermax prisons capture public attention and make great headlines but are fraught with danger. Australia's first so-called Supermax wing in Long Bay Gaol called Katingal, devastated the humanity of all who were sent within its walls. Prisoners never saw another human being whilst within its walls unless it was because of illness or misbehaviour. Prisoners were dehumanised to the point of seeking a way out. I was told by staff of Long Bay gaol that Katingal had the highest suicide rate of any prison in the world just prior to it being closed decades ago. I am sure the Department for Correctional Services needs a high security wing for prisoners who are violent or mentally ill, but I am also sure that that they are not calling this a Supermax facility with all of the subsequent negatives that attach to it.

30/07/2008 Chris Kenny presents a really good article in the Advertiser on the 30th July in his TALK column. Chris says "Our prison system fails everyone". He is correct at one level, but the broader issue is that the entire criminal justice system fails everyone. Our prison system simply cannot keep up with the huge increases in offending numbers in spite of its best efforts. Other jurisdictions across the world have already worked out that increasing incarceration fails. The UK Labor Government went down the get tough pathway, and over the last 2 years both privately and publicly have been begging the judiciary to sentence at the lower end of the range because of the massive overcrowding in their prisons. The judiciary have said no. The judges say to the politicians "You changed the laws and we will sentence according to them". A number of States in the USA have started to reduce sentences because they were facing insolvency, primarily because of the massive costs associated with imprisoning everyone. If incarceration actually worked, that is if it actually solved the problems of crime, the cost might be worth it. Our view is that for the vast majority of prisoners, it actually makes things worse. The issue of the costs of incarceration was dealt with in OARS SA recent newsletter. Download the Cost of Justice article here. The full text of the information OARS SA provided for Chris Kenny is here. OARS SA Statement. We must address the causes of crime through early intervention. Restorative Justice also presents a very positive range of alternatives if early intervention fails. One wonders if the so-called Gang of 49 offenders might benefit from some restorative interventions to help them understand the impact and harm associated with their crimes on victims. Restorative interventions in the UK have shown that repeat offending can be reduced and victims assisted, when opportunities are provided for victims and offenders to meet face to face. The current strategy with young aboriginal offenders seems like a significant failure.

25/07/2008 Comments reported by DPP Stephen Pallaras in the Advertiser July 25th 2008 about the OARS SA Public Forum. Mr Pallaras said among many other things that justice was not well served by current policies.