MILLIONS of dollars to be spent expanding the Junee Correctional Centre to house another 480 prisoners would be better spent on crime prevention and rehabilitation, two community justice groups argue.
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The state government announced on Wednesday it would spend $3.8 billion over four years to expand the capacity of the NSW correctional system.
While Junee has welcomed the news because of 130 new construction and jail jobs and other economic benefits, organisations such as Just Reinvest NSW view more prison cells as a social failure.
“It’s a bad investment,” said Sarah Hopkins chairman Just Reinvest NSW and managing solicitor of justice projects at the NSW/ACT Aboriginal Legal Service.
“Let’s target the root causes of crime.
“And the idea that that is being soft on crime is ridiculous; you are being tough on crime if you prevent it in the first place.”
The co-ordinator of Justice Action, Brett Collins, said the government was building bigger jails at a time when the crime rate was falling.
“That talks about failure,” Mr Collins said.
He said it cost $100,000 a year to house a person in jail.
“This money could be better spent in reducing crime, but the level of crime has been reducing, anyway,” Mr Collins said.
According to Mr Collins, 55 per cent of people held in prisons on remand were not convicted of the crimes which kept them in custody.
And he said people did not come out of prisons better people.
“You have this massive amount of money being spent on a system that, at its best, disables these people,” Mr Collins said. “They are less able to survive.”
Wagga criminal lawyer, David Barron, said perhaps the government should put more money into rehabilitation.
“If the jail population is growing, jail does not seem to be working as a deterrent,” Mr Barron said. “Certainly, some people need to be in jail for the protection of the community, but a lot more need rehabilitation.”
MILLIONS of dollars to be spent expanding the Junee Correctional Centre to house another 480 prisoners would be better spent on crime prevention and rehabilitation, two community justice groups argue.
The state government announced on Wednesday it would spend $3.8 billion over four years to expand the capacity of the NSW correctional system.
While Junee has welcomed the news because of 130 new construction and jail jobs and other economic benefits, organisations such as Just Reinvest NSW view more prison cells as a social failure.
“It’s a bad investment,” said Sarah Hopkins chairman Just Reinvest NSW and managing solicitor of justice projects at the NSW/ACT Aboriginal Legal Service.
“Let’s target the root causes of crime.
“And the idea that that is being soft on crime is ridiculous; you are being tough on crime if you prevent it in the first place.”
The co-ordinator of Justice Action, Brett Collins, said the government was building bigger jails at a time when the crime rate was falling.
“That talks about failure,” Mr Collins said.
He said it cost $100,000 a year to house a person in jail.
“This money could be better spent in reducing crime, but the level of crime has been reducing, anyway,” Mr Collins said.
According to Mr Collins, 55 per cent of people held in prisons on remand were not convicted of the crimes which kept them in custody.
And he said people did not come out of prisons better people.
“You have this massive amount of money being spent on a system that, at its best, disables these people,” Mr Collins said.
“They are less able to survive.”
Wagga criminal lawyer, David Barron, said perhaps the government should put more money into rehabilitation.
“If the jail population is growing, jail does not seem to be working as a deterrent,” Mr Barron said.
“Certainly, some people need to be in jail for the protection of the community, but a lot more need rehabilitation.
“The waiting list for (drug and alcohol) rehabilitation beds is a lot longer than the waiting list to get into jail.”
