Senator Lidia Thorpe is calling for the Albanese government to fund universal access to therapeutic bail supports to reduce the number of children and adults being jailed unsentenced around the country, and ensure that those out on bail receive supervision and support.
Read Senator Thorpe's letter to the government here.
The call echoes an open letter written by the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, along with 91 representatives of Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations, and community and legal services.
The letter says that to address driving factors of reoffending, the government must fund and invest in intensive bail supervision and supports, including Aboriginal led models, to support alleged offenders to successfully fulfil their bail conditions and address the causes of their offending.
This comes as Victoria and NSW Labor governments are moving to reduce access to bail for young people and others who are awaiting a trial, and as increasing rates of remand are driving up prison populations around the country.
Earlier this year, the Minister for Aboriginal Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, said she wants to see action to address increasing rates of unsentenced prisoners, and has written to state and territory cabinets.
Thorpe says the upcoming federal budget is an opportunity for the government to put their money where their mouth is, take real action and follow best evidence to deliver results for community safety.
Quotes attributable to Lidia Thorpe, Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung independent Victorian Senator:
"Around the country we’re seeing state and territory governments make it harder for people, including children as young as ten, to receive bail.
Meanwhile these governments are totally failing to invest in the proven solutions that support people to avoid reoffending, and make communities safer.
We know what denying bail will do: we will see more First People die in custody, more children’s futures stolen, and more families ripped apart. Bail literally saves lives.
It’s unacceptable that those who get bail are not being supported to avoid reoffending, and are often bailed back into homelessness, or into unsafe and unstable circumstances.
We see high rates of reoffending rates among a small group of marginalised young people because governments are doing so little to support them to get on track.
The youth justice inquiry heard that children being released from custody into homelessness in Queensland were provided with a tent, rather than any real assistance.
Minister Malarndirri McCarthy has said she wants to see action to reduce the number of people being jailed unsentenced. But all she has done so far is send off a few letters to the states.
Her government should put their money where their mouth is, show some leadership, and fund the solutions we know will work.
I’ve written to Minister McCarthy, the Attorney General and the Treasurer, to call for urgent federal investment to ensure every child and adult who is in contact with the criminal legal system has access to therapeutic bail supervision and support.
The evidence is incredibly clear: incarcerating people, particularly young people, drives further offending in future, often of a more serious nature. Jailing children does not make the community safer, it drives and worsens the problems we all want to see fixed.
And we know that it costs over a million dollars a year to jail a child. In Victoria, it's over two million dollars.
We should be doing everything we can to keep young people out of prison – this is in everyone’s interest. Locking up children does not make the community safer, it only further destabilises and damages young people, and makes it harder for them to get on the right track in future.
The community is concerned about young offenders breaching bail conditions, but locking up more children is not the answer. Supporting them is.
We’re in a national crisis of incarceration, it needs national action."