Amanda Bresnan, ACT Greens spokesperson for Corrections, says the Canberra Liberals prison policy misses the point of an effective prison system and won’t provide savings in the long term. 

“The AMC gives the ACT the opportunity to have a world-class rehabilitation centre, rather than a factory prison system with a revolving door of repeat offenders,” Ms Bresnan said today.

“Our focus should be on rehabilitation and reducing re-offending rates.

“Less re-offending not only provides society with better protection from crime, but it also translates into reduced costs in the courts and prison system in the medium and long term.

“If the Canberra Liberals were genuinely interested in lowering costs, they’d look at strategies to reduce the number of offenders, rather than the amount spent per inmate.

“The simplistic line from the Liberal party on this issue will grab them a headline, but they clearly prefer looking like they’re tough on crime rather than doing something to genuinely reduce crime rates.

“The Canberra Liberals seem to clearly prefer the much-maligned NSW system, with high rates of recidivism and mental illness

“The ACT should continue to move towards a rehabilitation strategy, and ensure that prisoners are healthy and capable of reintegrating into society upon release.  This won’t happen if we slash costs unnecessarily.”  Ms Bresnan said.

Tags: amc, corrections, crime, law and order, prisons

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 11:42 am and is filed under Amanda Bresnan, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.