❓ Mr. Papalia questions the Minister for Corrective Services on prison population strategy and the reintroduction of an intensive supervision program. The Minister responds by outlining a focus on preventing juvenile crime and reviewing existing programs for effectiveness.
AnsweredQoN 76Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIVE SERVICES —
OFFENDER STRATEGY
76. Mr P. PAPALIA to the Minister for Corrective Services:
I refer to the minister's
sacking of the Commissioner of Corrective Services and the chaos and confusion
the minister has brought to the corrective services portfolio in his five and a
half weeks or so of tenure. Last week the minister said that every dollar spent
keeping someone out of jail is better than $10 spent keeping them in jail.
(1) What is
the minister's intention in relation to the prison population in
Western Australia—to increase or decrease it, noting all the minister's
other commentary on the subject?
(2) Will the
minister be reintroducing the intensive supervision program—otherwise
known as the family intensive team program—which successfully reduced
recidivism by between 25 and 70 per cent, in long-term overseas studies, and
which is a program that the minister's government abolished in its
second year of office?
OFFENDER STRATEGY
76. Mr P. PAPALIA to the Minister for Corrective Services:
I refer to the minister's
sacking of the Commissioner of Corrective Services and the chaos and confusion
the minister has brought to the corrective services portfolio in his five and a
half weeks or so of tenure. Last week the minister said that every dollar spent
keeping someone out of jail is better than $10 spent keeping them in jail.
(1) What is
the minister's intention in relation to the prison population in
Western Australia—to increase or decrease it, noting all the minister's
other commentary on the subject?
(2) Will the
minister be reintroducing the intensive supervision program—otherwise
known as the family intensive team program—which successfully reduced
recidivism by between 25 and 70 per cent, in long-term overseas studies, and
which is a program that the minister's government abolished in its
second year of office?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the
member for Warnbro for his question.
(1)–(2)
One of the things that has obviously come to my attention is the fact that
perhaps in some circumstances it may be better to spend a little bit more to
put a few more resources into stopping some juveniles, in particular, from
crossing that line that will land them in jail. This government obviously has a
very strong record on protecting the community—on locking up people who
are a threat to the innocent people of Western Australia—and I will
not, and I am sure the government will not, apologise for that stand. But I
also think that we can do a little bit more to spend some money in helping to
keep some of the at-risk juveniles, in particular, from crossing the line that
will land them in jail in the first place. It is not one of those areas in
which if we just had millions of dollars and could throw $1 million at every
single person in Western Australia, we would stop people from committing
crimes. We are still going to have people in jail. What I am suggesting is that
perhaps we should spend a bit more money and put a few more resources into
trying to stop people going down that wrong path that will land them in jail,
which will just create a waste of human capital by locking them up. If we can
keep them from committing crimes in the first place, that will provide a better
outcome for them, for the individuals who will not be the victims of the crime
and for the taxpayers, because at the moment it costs somewhere around $630 a
day to keep a juvenile in detention in Western Australia. Does that answer the
member's question?
Mr P. Papalia : Is this in Banksia or
Hakea?
Mr J.M. FRANCIS : The member gets where
I am coming from.
As far as the programs are concerned—I am sorry,
member for Warnbro; I know what your second question was—as the member
would have heard, at the moment I am doing what I call a stocktake. I am having
a look at these programs that we spend about $2 million a year on delivering
for at-risk juveniles in Western Australia to find out whether there is a
better way of doing this. We need to work out which programs get better value
for money for the taxpayers than others. It is very hard to put consistent key
performance indicators on this as well, and it is very hard to gauge this, but
we need to try to work out how we can do this. We need to work out which ones
are working well and perhaps those that are not working so well, and maybe
direct taxpayers' money towards the programs that will help to keep
juveniles from crossing that line that will land them in jail in the first
place. We are reviewing all these programs, and we will see how we go with
that, member for Warnbro.
member for Warnbro for his question.
(1)–(2)
One of the things that has obviously come to my attention is the fact that
perhaps in some circumstances it may be better to spend a little bit more to
put a few more resources into stopping some juveniles, in particular, from
crossing that line that will land them in jail. This government obviously has a
very strong record on protecting the community—on locking up people who
are a threat to the innocent people of Western Australia—and I will
not, and I am sure the government will not, apologise for that stand. But I
also think that we can do a little bit more to spend some money in helping to
keep some of the at-risk juveniles, in particular, from crossing the line that
will land them in jail in the first place. It is not one of those areas in
which if we just had millions of dollars and could throw $1 million at every
single person in Western Australia, we would stop people from committing
crimes. We are still going to have people in jail. What I am suggesting is that
perhaps we should spend a bit more money and put a few more resources into
trying to stop people going down that wrong path that will land them in jail,
which will just create a waste of human capital by locking them up. If we can
keep them from committing crimes in the first place, that will provide a better
outcome for them, for the individuals who will not be the victims of the crime
and for the taxpayers, because at the moment it costs somewhere around $630 a
day to keep a juvenile in detention in Western Australia. Does that answer the
member's question?
Mr P. Papalia : Is this in Banksia or
Hakea?
Mr J.M. FRANCIS : The member gets where
I am coming from.
As far as the programs are concerned—I am sorry,
member for Warnbro; I know what your second question was—as the member
would have heard, at the moment I am doing what I call a stocktake. I am having
a look at these programs that we spend about $2 million a year on delivering
for at-risk juveniles in Western Australia to find out whether there is a
better way of doing this. We need to work out which programs get better value
for money for the taxpayers than others. It is very hard to put consistent key
performance indicators on this as well, and it is very hard to gauge this, but
we need to try to work out how we can do this. We need to work out which ones
are working well and perhaps those that are not working so well, and maybe
direct taxpayers' money towards the programs that will help to keep
juveniles from crossing that line that will land them in jail in the first
place. We are reviewing all these programs, and we will see how we go with
that, member for Warnbro.
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