Print friendly
Australia’s Catholic bishops want politicians to think again about tough crime campaigns and look to creative sentencing options, saying Australia is putting too many convicts in prison.
While Australia’s crime rates have remained steady, the bishops’ say the number of those behind bars has doubled between 1984 and 2008. They call the growth a “disproportion”.
“While society will always require prison as a last resort punishment, it is time for us as a nation to consider alternatives to prison and ways to reintegrate people into community life,” said Archbishop Philip Wilson, Archbishop of Adelaide and president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
On September 25, the Australian bishops’ will release their annual social justice statement. This year the statement is entitled “Building Bridges, Not Walls: Prisons and the justice system.”
In the statement the bishops’ identify the main issues with the country’s criminal justice system as
- law and order fear campaigns,
- social factors contributing to crime,
- prisoner dignity,
- support for ex-prisoners, and
- realistic alternatives to incarceration.
“Among those who make up Australia’s growing prison population are people who are often already suffering the burdens of dispossession, illness, poverty and alienation,” Wilson said.
Statistics quoted by Adelaide Now report
- South Australia’s prisons are at a record 95% capacity
- prisoner numbers have soared in the last four years
- South Australia’s state prison population was on target to reach full capacity by the end of 2013
Correctional Services blame longer sentencing, prison growth and legislative changes for the record increase in prison in-mates.
Sources
- Adelaide Now
- Image: News.com.au
Related Posts:
News category: World.
