Mrs BRAHAM - 2006-10-10
Under the Northern Territory Sentencing Act, a court may order a person found guilty of a domestic violence offence to attend a perpetrator’s program. Is the perpetrator program still operating? Where is it being offered? Could you advise how many of these orders been made, say, in the last two years, so we can have an indication of how many people are actually going through this program? Will you amend the Sentencing Act to make it mandatory, not voluntary?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I will need to seek further information on the perpetrators’ program as explained by the member for Braitling. I advise the House and the member for Braitling this: I am a strong advocate of doing whatever we can in order to reduce the recidivism rate. That is what is driving the prison population; that is what is filling up our prisons, when we have 45% to 50% of people, having served time in prison, going back after release, doing the same or something else wrong again. Whatever interventions there have been - and in some cases there have not been any - there has been a failure to address the person’s behaviour, which puts them back in the same community, in the same situation and circumstances which led them into strife in the first place. Is it any surprise that they go on to commit another offence and are back in? That is the key to reducing the prison population. I will seek advice on that.
In relation to the whole range of programs to which offenders are exposed - and there are quite a significant number - could there be more? Yes. Are they adequately resourced? I would like to see more resources in and around particularly education. There is a role for accelerated literacy as a program to go in the prisons, given the strength that we see with students who are not reading anywhere near their chronological age. There is some evidence that older people, that is late teens and adults, can accelerate even more than the younger age with accelerated literacy.
The croc training program received some attention recently. It was much more than about crocodiles. It is about fencing, welding, painting - it is about employability skills …
Mrs Braham: Concentrate on the perpetrator program.
Mr STIRLING: … back in the community and I believe we need to ramp up those sorts of programs. The programs we now have - Alcohol and Other Drugs; Introduction to Land and Management; alcohol and other drug treatment programs; anger management treatment programs; indigenous family violence programs; cognitive skills; victim awareness; and sex offender treatment programs. If we are talking about perpetrator programs, that is the range that is offered inside our prisons. It is a decision by the courts at the time of sentencing that a particular offender participate and complete one of these programs.
I will pick up on the question from Hansard again and see what I have missed and get back to you in relation to do we think we need to make any change.
Mrs Braham: Just how often are they being referred to the program?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I will need to seek further information on the perpetrators’ program as explained by the member for Braitling. I advise the House and the member for Braitling this: I am a strong advocate of doing whatever we can in order to reduce the recidivism rate. That is what is driving the prison population; that is what is filling up our prisons, when we have 45% to 50% of people, having served time in prison, going back after release, doing the same or something else wrong again. Whatever interventions there have been - and in some cases there have not been any - there has been a failure to address the person’s behaviour, which puts them back in the same community, in the same situation and circumstances which led them into strife in the first place. Is it any surprise that they go on to commit another offence and are back in? That is the key to reducing the prison population. I will seek advice on that.
In relation to the whole range of programs to which offenders are exposed - and there are quite a significant number - could there be more? Yes. Are they adequately resourced? I would like to see more resources in and around particularly education. There is a role for accelerated literacy as a program to go in the prisons, given the strength that we see with students who are not reading anywhere near their chronological age. There is some evidence that older people, that is late teens and adults, can accelerate even more than the younger age with accelerated literacy.
The croc training program received some attention recently. It was much more than about crocodiles. It is about fencing, welding, painting - it is about employability skills …
Mrs Braham: Concentrate on the perpetrator program.
Mr STIRLING: … back in the community and I believe we need to ramp up those sorts of programs. The programs we now have - Alcohol and Other Drugs; Introduction to Land and Management; alcohol and other drug treatment programs; anger management treatment programs; indigenous family violence programs; cognitive skills; victim awareness; and sex offender treatment programs. If we are talking about perpetrator programs, that is the range that is offered inside our prisons. It is a decision by the courts at the time of sentencing that a particular offender participate and complete one of these programs.
I will pick up on the question from Hansard again and see what I have missed and get back to you in relation to do we think we need to make any change.
Mrs Braham: Just how often are they being referred to the program?
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016