Law and Order policy solutions must be centred on the family, says Kimberley Bishop
THE family is the foundation and most effective tool society has to protect and nurture itself as law and order is debated in WA, Broome Bishop Christopher Saunders said.
Bishop Saunders spoke to The Record at a forum on law and order at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Fremantle at which he was a panellist with Chief Justice Wayne Martin and Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan among others.
Forum panellists agreed that criminal justice should lead to social justice by empowering families and communities to tailor solutions with the guidance of government departments.
It also proposed to tackle crime at its roots by fixing its causes like drug and alcohol abuse through counselling and rehab centres, rather than thinking prison alone will fix the problem.
Bishop Saunders called for “a suitable justice system that can deal with the terrible brokenness that is facing us with our youth and our not so young”.
He said that the importance of families must be recognised in policy decisions regarding the rehabilitation of prisoners both during and after their jail term.
This is especially important for Aborigines, for whom family is such a crucial element in their culture.
“The functionality of our families is being affected by the breakdown in marriage and relationships, while the respect for proper authority has been dissipating,” he said. “This has led to a lack of respect, which allows youth to grow up in (situations) where they are responsible for their own behaviour but haven’t got the maturity to handle that responsibility. They’re not getting guidance because their elders don’t have the abilities. That’s why the family is so important – the most important element of our society that will cause our society to either succeed or fail.”
The Broome prison, he said, is an example which “lends itself to Aboriginal families feeling at home visiting their relatives”.
“For Aborigines, clan support is essential for reformation,” he said.
He supported the ‘Justice Reinvestment’ system the WA Government announced at its State Budget on 20 May that will see it spend $43.9m over the next four years to help divert young people in the Kimberley and Pilbara regions away from the criminal justice systems.
Young offenders will be supervised, allowing them to return home to family and be subject to programmes that help with any underlying causes of their criminal behaviour like drug or alcohol addiction.
This answers the panel’s suggestion (see main story) that solutions be tailored for individual communities, as one size does not always suit all.
Bishop Saunders said that it is essential programmes run locally with a highly-trained companion, preferably Aboriginal if the offender is also. “This will help them avoid perpetrating crimes, so we’re putting money into a place that’s not just a basketball court but a place where they can be educated out of school in human living,” he said.
In announcing the plan, Attorney General and Corrective Services Minister Christian Porter said that it is an “unfortunate reality” that over 150 youths from the Kimberley and Pilbara regions spent time in juvenile detention last year at an average cost to the taxpayer of between $600 and $700 per day.
“While juvenile detention is often necessary, when young offenders can be helped away from offending it decreases the burden on the WA public, both in terms of cost to the taxpayer and community safety,” he said.
The expansion of the Department of Corrective Services Regional Youth Justice Services will provide outreach support for youth and their families.
It will provide emergency bail accommodation, community work programmes to provide young offenders with the capacity to enter employment and juvenile justice teams to divert people from the justice system.