Thread by @KirstiMiller30

@FrancisFlanner3 Totally agree and I have managed several of them. Both Lab & LNP government funding priorities across Aust have effectively criminalised the consequences of marginalisation & failed to address the causes of offending.

medium.com/@kirstiphillip…

@FrancisFlanner3 This is why our prisons presently warehouse Aboriginal men, women and children as well as the mentally ill.

@FrancisFlanner3 The 1987–91 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody reported that: “The single significant contributing factor to incarceration is the disadvantaged and unequal position of Aboriginal people in Australian society in every way.

@FrancisFlanner3 LNP & Lab Governments continue to lavish resources on incarceration despite empirical research that re-offending is better addressed by rehabilitation programs, education and vocational training, stable housing, and employment.

@FrancisFlanner3 We have to break the cycle of poverty, unemployment and incarceration they are all linked to disadvantage. The more disadvantaged the more crime, the more people locked up it’s the revolving door syndrome.

@FrancisFlanner3 Since 1991 RC, the imprisonment rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has increased 12 times faster than the rate for non-Aboriginal people.

@FrancisFlanner3 No jurisdiction in Australia – not even the ACT – gaols black males at a rate less than the days of Apartheid South Africa.

@FrancisFlanner3 Either Aboriginal people are the biggest criminals on earth, genetically pre-disposed to crime, or there’s something seriously wrong with our criminal justice system. As the inaugural manager of Australia’s 1st Indigenous Specific Prison, I can assure you it’s the later.

@FrancisFlanner3 Australia, like our US and British nuclear submarine cousins, is fond of locking people up. Australia has returned to mass incarceration we now incarcerate a greater share of the adult population than at any point since the late 19th century the convict days.

@FrancisFlanner3 The increase in the Australian prison population does not seem to be due to crime rates, which have mostly declined over the past generation. Instead, higher reporting rates, stricter policing practices, tougher sentencing laws,

@FrancisFlanner3 and more stringent bail laws appear to be the main drivers of Australia’s growing prison population.

@FrancisFlanner3 The solutions to reduce imprisonment & close the gap will never be found in any of the prisons I managed or any private or public prison. The solutions need to be community-designed and driven, with government support.

@FrancisFlanner3 The very idea of private prisons elicits an intuitive recoil in many because it involves basically making a profit out of people’s misery. 🇦🇺 has blindly followed the trend in the 🇺🇸 & the 🇬🇧 with privatised prisons.

@FrancisFlanner3 The companies operating in Australia are the same global behemoths providing their services in the US and UK, in what is a multi-billion dollar industry. Private prisons currently operate in five jurisdictions in Australia: NSW, Qld, SA, Vic and WA.

@FrancisFlanner3 The incentives of private prison companies can easily become opposed to the aims of the humane containment &rehabilitation of prisoners the very purposes of corrective services.

@FrancisFlanner3 The larger the prison population, the longer the sentences, the larger the payout under government contracts; the more prisoners, the more prisons, the more growth. Cheaper facilities and fewer services mean more profit.

@FrancisFlanner3 These inescapable relationships are the source of the potential conflict of interest,a choice between the objectives of corrective services to provide a safe, secure & humane custodial envirprovide &

@FrancisFlanner3 program interventions to reduce the risk of reoffending & those of a maximum profit & growth.

@FrancisFlanner3 Why are governments outsourcing the management of Australian prisons to companies from the Usa and the UK. If there are to be private prisons government contracts must first be offered to Australian companies, shouldn’t they?

@FrancisFlanner3 Those interested in ensuring human rights are universal and unconditional also have a reason to oppose private prisons as long as they fail to make information about their operations accessible. For the time being, murkiness remains the defining feature of private prisons.

@FrancisFlanner3 Through the haze, it is hard to see the future prospects of private prisons in 🇦🇺. However, given the lack of savings in the most privatised state, the opaque ethical standards and the fact that public opinion is clearly against private prisons,

@FrancisFlanner3 it is hard to imagine what is stopping deprivatisation & justice reinvestment.

@FrancisFlanner3 Australia cannot afford the social, health and economic costs of over-imprisonment. Strong, healthy & connected communities are the most effective way to prevent crime & make communities safer, it’s not fucking rocket science.

@FrancisFlanner3 Building more prisons for 230+ years has resulted in Australia’s First Nations People to be the most incarcerated Indigenous Community on this Planet with a life expectancy a full decade less than white 🇦🇺 Sadly #Budget2021 fails to address this Australian tragedy.
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@FrancisFlanner3 @threadreaderapp please unroll