Koori Incarceration !

Nationally, Aborigines and Torres Strait islanders make up just 2.8% of the Australian population, but in New South Wales they represent 28% of the prison population.  Both the NSW Bar Association and the Police Association are calling for the trial of a special court to try and break the nexus of Koori men offending and constantly re-offending.

They cite the example of the outcome when the state instituted a special court to hear drug cases in 1999.  The re-offending rate dropped by 37% when drug matters were heard before this special court and it definitely did not include a " soft on crime " outcome.  The monitoring of court orders received a more onerous treatment and included the use of drug and alcohol testing on a random basis.

A similar approach in Victoria has had a reduction in Koori crime.   The Walama Court hears matters which involve Koori sentencing and seeks reduced rates of recidivism by looking deeply at the crime patterns involved and their effect on the entire Koori community. When a Koori man is sent to gaol there is an obvious outcome on the living standards of other family members.

The proposers claim that a similar court here would have a positive result and a five year trial would cost about $15 million.   Considering that it costs $181 each day to keep a prisoner behind bars anything that reduces prison numbers would be a welcome saving.

Before European settlement arrived in Australia the Aboriginal community did not use imprisonment as their punishment for crime.  They had no prisons and therefore justice was more an " on the spot " form of punishment rather than the prolonged loss of liberty as practised by the incoming white regime.

The tribal elders would decide on punishment and that could take the form of deliberately spearing the offender in an arm or a leg.   Apart from the obvious pain, this was a disability that prevented the offender from hunting or providing for his family while the wound healed, and there was always the risk of blood poisoning resulting in death.   It had the salutary effect of discouraging recidivism with the knowledge that the outcome would mean another spearing.

We considered that barbaric, but to an Aboriginal the loss of freedom while confined to a prison may have seemed more a matter of mental anguish than the pain delivered by a sharp spear.  The police and the Bar Association are not proposing a return to spearing but they do believe that Aboriginal justice may be better served by Aboriginal elders fitting a penalty to the crime which is more conducive to punishment than the white mans logic of putting the offender behind bars.

Unfortunately, there is now a certain inevitability when a young Koori man faces court.  There is the expectation that he will be sentenced to imprisonment, and when he arrives at that prison he will be enveloped by a fraternal protection of fellow Kooris and he will quickly become a student at what is commonly called the " University of Crime ".   He will be a far more  knowledgeable  alumni when he walks out that gate to freedom.

The maxim " Nothing ventured - Nothing gained " applies.  Giving something like the Walama court a trial may both reduce the Koori prison population and save the state a lot of money.   This is a case where the system IS broken - and it needs fixing.