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Expert comment on reoffending –
RMIT University’s Associate Professor Julian Bondy says the latest ABS figures on
reoffending rates raise difficult questions for Australia’s justice system.
“If prisons do not deter crime, if they do not rehabilitate offenders, if they do not
serve justice for the victims, and if they do not promote civilised social interaction
by reducing the amount of offenders, then it is quite legitimate to ask – what
purpose do they serve?” Associate Professor Bondy said.
The study of Australia's prison populations by the Australian Bureau of Statistics
found reoffending rates have remained almost unchanged, with more than half of
prisoners having spent time in jail before.
The study covered prison census data from 1994 to 2007 and found about 56 per
cent of prisoners had been in prison before by 2007, a drop of just 4 per cent since
1994.
“It’s tempting to assume that the more people behind bars, the less crime there will
be,” Associate Professor Bondy said.
“But despite public expectations to the contrary, there is no clear cause and effect.
In fact, these latest figures reinforce the problematic nature of prisons as places
whose objective is to assist in positive reintegration for offenders.
“These figures are not unique to the Australian criminal justice system.
“It has been well established internationally that current laws and justice system
practices exacerbate crime, unnecessarily damage the lives of millions of people
and waste billions of dollars every year.
“The continued and growing over-representation of Indigenous Australians in our
prison system represents a national tragedy.
“We should be ashamed that nearly 20 years after the Royal Commission into
Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, its recommendation that imprisonment should be
used only as a sanction of last resort seems to have been by and large ignored.”
Associate Professor Bondy researches in criminal justice and has conducted
extensive evaluations of strategies to reduce re-offending.
He is available for interview.
For interviews: RMIT University’s Associate Professor Julian Bondy, 0411
260 866.
For general media enquiries: RMIT University Communications, Gosia
Kaszubska, (03) 9925 3176 or 0417 510 735.
31 August, 2010
NEWS 
