Description

The purpose of this discussion paper is to provide the foundation for community negotiations on the development of an Aboriginal Justice Plan for New South Wales. The discussion paper follows the signing of an Aboriginal Justice Agreement by the NSW Attorney-General and the Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council (AJAC) in June 2002. The Aboriginal Justice Plan will be completed and implemented in 2003. After discussing the historical implications of colonisation and painting a picture of the NSW Aboriginal community’s well being, the paper describes the criminal justice situation facing the community. This discussion covers issues such as major offence categories, types of penalties imposed, types of interventions currently used, representation and experience at various stages of the criminal process, imprisonment rates, victimisation rates, current barriers to effective access to justice and underlying causes of offending. The paper then discusses evidence based approaches to dealing with the problem of Aboriginal over-representation in the criminal justice system, with a particular focus on community based programs and strategies, and analyses key issues in the context of developing the Aboriginal Justice Plan.

Related Items

• NSW Aboriginal Justice Plan: Beyond Justice 2004-2014

NSW