JR NSW calls on government to allocate additional $60 million to early intervention, prevention & diversion as part of savings from NSW Criminal Justice Reform Package

Just Reinvest NSW has developed a Pre-Budget Submission 2018-2019.

We are calling on the NSW Government to:

A) Adopt a new model of investment in the 2018-2019 Budget to reduce the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prison population:

1. Allocate an additional $60 million over 2 years into early intervention, prevention and diversionary programs delivered by Aboriginal community-controlled organisations or organisations working in genuine collaboration with Aboriginal community-controlled organisations or Aboriginal community-led initiatives. (This amount reflects a conservative estimate of savings to be realised as a result of effective implementation of the NSW Criminal Justice Reform Package).

2. Adopt and implement policy and legislative reforms recommended in the Just Reinvest NSW Policy Paper #1: Smarter Sentencing & Parole Law Reform to immediately reduce the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prison population in NSW and free up resources for reinvestment.

3. Report annually on the impact of reforms to the criminal justice system (implemented under the NSW Criminal Justice Reform Package and as recommended by Just Reinvest NSW) and the savings generated as a result of those reforms, and annually reinvest a portion of those savings into a justice reinvestment fund for early intervention, prevention and diversionary programs to reduce Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offending, reoffending and imprisonment (see Recommendation 1 above).

4. Allocate sufficient resources to community-based programs and services particularly in regional and remote areas, to ensure that reforms in the NSW Criminal Justice Reform Package aimed at increasing the use of community-based orders and decreasing the rate of breaches of sentence and parole conditions are effective in reducing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment and reoffending rates.

B) Allocate $9.9 million over 5 years in the 2018-2019 Budget for a NSW Justice Reinvestment Framework 

5. Invest $900,000 in existing community-led justice reinvestment trials.

6. Provide $250,000 over 2 years for community engagement and scoping work to assess and prepare other communities for justice reinvestment trials.

7. Allocate $5 million over 5 years to establish an independent non-government justice reinvestment body (to commence in January 2019) to coordinate and support community-led justice reinvestment.

8. Invest $3.75 million over 5 years to support three community-led justice reinvestment trials across NSW in partnership with philanthropic, corporate and not-for-profit partners.

Read our full submission here: Pre-Budget Submission 2018-2019.

Revised February 2018