Christmas Greeting From a Law Firm

From us ("the wishors") to you ("hereinafter called the wishee"):

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Ben Cousins is Innocent

At least for the moment.

Whilst no-one can deny that there is a problem with drugs in the AFL, it seems that Ben Cousins seems to be getting a pretty raw deal. Pulled over by the Police, and then arrested while the TV cameras film it all! Normally when someone is arrested, the TV stations pixellate their faces so as not to prejudice a fair trial. (In Cousins' case, they might have needed to pixellate the stomach too!)

Not only that, but he then faces sanctions from his club, before the case has been through the Court process.

Perhaps there have been some amendments to the law so that the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence no longer apply to AFL players.

Meanwhile, all the attention gets focussed on Ben Cousins, rather than the wider problem - just a bit too convenient for the AFL!

"Rehabilitation has failed," they cry

With the media reporting a number of very nasty crimes over the last week, there are increasingly vocal advocates of harsher penalties, so called "three strikes" policies, and dumping any focus on rehabilitation.

You only need to follow the comments on AdelaideNow, run by "The Advertiser," to see the depth of the feelings this issue is producing.

Those who claim that rehabilitation has failed ignore the fact that rehabilitation has never really been tried in a properly funded way. They also ignore the fact that harsh punishments have been tried for centuries and have failed. Hanging did not prevent murders, and people still stole loaves of bread in England when the penalty was transportation to Australia!

Those who would like to see the "Gang of 49" locked up need to think about this; at $65,000 per prisoner, per annum, locking up 49 people will cost us - the taxpayers of SA - nearly $3.2 million EVERY YEAR, for as long as we keep them locked up.

As an added problem, little rehabilitation occurs in gaol, so those people are still likely to offend when released.

Rehabilitation is not about a bag of lollies and a pat on the head, it is about fixing the problems that lead people to offend.

A long time between posts

As those of you who listen to me on 5AA on Wednesdays would be aware, I have been quite ill lately, and this blog was one of the first things to suffer.

Now that I am recovering, although not back to work, the rants should start again.

Stay tuned, and thanks to all of you who sent me messages of support.

Who watches the Watch-house?

We have such a problem with overcrowding in prisons, that remand prisoners are now being held in the City Watch-house. This is a facility designed to hold people only for short terms, following their arrest, and until they go to Court.

People held there do not get family visits, and often the time they need them most is when they are first remanded in custody. For a while, it was even difficult for them to get a visit with a lawyer, but that problem seems to have been fixed after I contacted the Minister for Correctional Services, Carmel Zollo, and her staff fixed the problem fairly quickly.

A number of my clients have described their feelings of isolation and helplessness, while held here. The continued imprisonment of the innocent in these harsh conditions must stop.

System at Breaking Point

Today's Advertiser article about the deplorable situation at Pt Augusta Prosecution highlights the problems with under-funding of prosecuting authorities in SA.

Leaving aside the transfers, if 2 out of 6 staff are on stress leave, then something is very wrong. Imagine if one third of your company's workers were on stress leave - wouldn't that set off some alarm bells?

Quick action is needed, or the system will grind to a halt.

The real cost of more prisons

According to the government's "Major Projects" webpage, the new prisons to be built in South Australia will cost $438 million!! The prison capacity, according to that website, will increase by about 500.

The ABS puts the annual cost of keeping a prisoner at $58,000, or a massive $29 million every year to house 500 extra prisoners.

Since there appears to be no plan to increase the size of the remand centre, we also need to factor in the cost of transporting all the remand prisoners from Murray Bridge to the city for Court appearances.

If Victoria can have the lowest crime rate in Australia, and an imprisonment rate of less than three quarters that in SA, what does our Government propose to do to reduce crime?

Police Commissioner Mal Hyde Agrees with Simon Slade

Sorry about the silly headline, but I could not resist. Would love to see that in The Advertiser one day.

Last Friday night, on ABC's Stateline, Commissioner Hyde made the same point that I have been making about the so-called Gang of 49: "It's not exactly a gang of 49. They're a particular targeted group of people. They're not all associated together and it's not formed like a tightly knit gang. They're just a group of associated high risk offenders."

It was also interesting to see the Commissioner's views on rehabilitation, given the different way that those views were represented in some print media.

Either we take the bull by the horns and commit to rehabilitation, or we sentence our society to a future of increased crime.

DNA tests for minor offences

The government has announced plans to DNA test people charged with summary offences that do not attract an expiation notice.

There are already long delays for DNA work in criminal matters, with some cases being adjourned for months awaiting the results.

If the government is serious about this policy, there will need to be a lot more funding for the Forensic Science Centre, so they can keep up with the workload.

Changes to Rape Trials

In the Advertiser today, it was reported that the government is to bring in changes to the laws about the way rape trials are conducted.

If the report in the paper is accurate, then the "changes" do not seem to be any great departure from the legal position at the moment, and seem to be just another opportunity to have a go at lawyers.

Apparently the government is concerned about the low conviction rate for these offences, and once again, it is the defence lawyers who are apparently to blame. Perhaps they should spend a little bit of time somewhere near a courtroom, before passing sentence on those of us who stand as the guardians of the rights of every citizen, particularly at the low rates that the under-funded legal aid system offers to defence lawyers.

The gang of 49

Now that some of the media hype has died down, we can examine this a little more closely.

The idea that these people are a gang is a myth. There is no organised structure, and there is no one person or group that is co-ordination the activities of these people. Just a group of people, loosely connected by family relationships, who are committing crimes. The media has done little to examine why this is the case, or suggest any solutions beyond locking them up.

While people may need to be punished for committing crime, unless the root cause of the criminal behaviour is addressed, the crime will continue.

Prison Overcrowding

One of the results of the current government's view that "Tough on Crime" is the same thing as "Longer Prison Sentences," and the higher rates of remands in custody in South Australia is the overcrowding of our prisons.

One of my sources at Yatala Labour Prison has told me that 60% of the inmates there are on remand. Most people think that the Adelaide Remand Centre is where all remand prisoners are housed, and that the high security Yatala is only for sentenced prisoners. This means that remand prisoners are in the same prison as some of the State's most hardened criminals, no doubt learning all the wrong lessons!

With moves to change the law to make it harder for many accused to get bail, this situation is only set to get worse.

We might even get to a situation like the UK, where the government has asked the Judges to consider only sending the worst offenders to prison.