Jail and alternatives

Since I recently posted that we don't hear enough from criminologists, I should post here about the article that appeared a couple of days ago at the ABC:

There are fresh calls to put more domestic violence offenders in prison. But mounting evidence suggests that 'jailing is failing'

With articles like this, I tend not to have trouble with the analysis of the problem (broadly, how our current implementation of custodial punishment is not working well from a rehabilitation point of view), but have more concerns about the vagueness of how alternative programs could be expected to work on a large enough scale.   

To be fair, I don't have this attitude from an extensive reading on the topic - but it just seems an obvious problem that there seem to be so few successful example of programs that they can point to within Australia, and that overseas examples are often specific to those countries settings and may not be easily translatable to here.

For example, in this article:

In fact, alternatives to incarceration have been shown to be radically more effective at reducing reoffending rates. Instead of one-in-two going back to jail, a recidivism rate of as low as 13.6 per cent has been achieved in Spain by emphasising and supporting healthy lifestyle choices, connections with family and emotional development.

The Productivity Commission recommended Australia pursue policies like those in Norway by paying more attention to "the underlying causes of offending" to achieve "better long-term recidivism outcomes" and lowering the cost of crime to the community. Doing so, it said, "would move Australian prison systems towards a stronger emphasis on rehabilitation and have the potential for better long-term outcomes".

 OK, because I have trouble imagining that the social environment from which criminality arise in Norway translates at all well to that from which a large part of ours comes (indigenous population, often in rural and remote areas), let's look at the link to the Spanish story.

Hmmm.   It reads rather like strong self promotion by an organisation (Diagrama Foundation) that claims large success in Spain, but these are the groups they are largely helping there:

We work with some of the most disadvantaged children in society. In our centres we work
with boys and girls aged 14-23 3 , typically convicted for violent offences. They face a full range of challenges – disengagement from education, from different types of family background, and with a wide range of health, social and other challenges, including learning difficulties, substance misuse and mental health issues. Many of our centres include therapeutic units for those with significant mental health conditions and we also run specific centres solely for young people in the justice system who have mental health issues.

When our centres were first established, more than 85% of those we worked with came from Roma communities, marginalised by society. We continue to work with children and young people from diverse backgrounds across all our services. We run over 75 residential shelters for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children as well as integration programmes to address the challenges faced by people socially excluded by race or religion. We also manage medical and educational programmes for vulnerable communities in Senegal and Kenya.

We are commissioned by 15 of the 17 counties in Spain to run either custodial or non-
secure facilities. Each region of Spain is different in terms of culture, language, climate and
geography. We run centres in the middle of cities, and in distant parts of the countryside. 

While I don't doubt that Roma communities are far from ideal for children being raised within them, I also find it hard to believe that the social background is anything much like the social dysfunction in the Northern Territory towns the report is looking at. 

Also - I'm a tad sceptical about the section of the report which says they achieve this in Spain with about half the staffing of current detention facilities in the NT.

And here's the thing - many of the facilities in Spain are in towns and cities, where it is surely going to be much, much easier to attract the type of worker you need in the very "hands on" rehabilitation centres, compared to trying to fill such jobs in places like Katherine or Alice Springs:

Social educators - Qualified to degree level and guided by the Technical Team, they support young people throughout every aspect of their day, from getting up in the morning to when they go to bed and including in classes, vocational training and leisure activities. They are at the heart of our approach and genuinely care about the young people they work with.

Technical Team - formed of qualified psychologists, social workers and reintegration workers (who support planning for release - housing, education, jobs), working alongside healthcare staff. They plan and deliver assessments, integrated case management, interventions and reintegration programmes.

Security staff – who act as a last resort in incident management. 

So yeah, I am far from convinced about how readily you can make that work here.   

Not that I know what the alternative is, really....