Recividism in Juvenile Offenders

The report also found that Aboriginal people are sentenced to longer terms, spend more time in maximum security or segregation, are less likely to be granted parole, and are more likely to have their parole revoked (CSC, 2013). Correctional Investigator Howard Sapers concluded that the numbers of Aboriginal offenders continues to grow each year and that there were “serious gaps between the law and practice” when it came to dealing with aboriginal inmates (Ljunggren, 2013, p.1).

Provision [SCRGSP], 2005; Jeffries and Bond, 2012). It is also widely discussed that there is an overrepresentation of Indigenous Australians in the criminal justice system itself (Jeffries and Bond, 2009), representing up to one quarter of prisoners in Australia (Makkai and Payne, 2003; Payne, 2005). This essay will address the current issues that Indigenous Australians face within the criminal justice system, particularly, with courts. The aim of this essay besides addressing these issues will also be to provide suggestions or alternatives that may help resolve the presented issues and improve the experience for Indigenous Australians in court.

Aboriginal women face disproportionate challenges throughout their incarceration which impacts their successful community reintegration. Over the last ten years, inmate assaults involving Aboriginal women have exponentially grown, almost doubling, while use of force incidents have more than tripled. Rates of self-injury involving incarcerated Aboriginal women are seventeen times higher than that of non-Aboriginal women. To agree with Baldry, Carlton, and Cunneen, using Indigenous women as a focus point is beneficial because their "experiences embody and exemplify the intersections between colonial and neocolonial oppression and the multiple sites of gender and disadvantage and inequality that stem from patriarchal domination." Cunneen highlights that Indigenous women actually live in "many prisons"; the prison of misunderstanding; the prison of misogyny; and the prison of disempowerment. Patricia Monture insists that one way women can resist oppression and facilitate social change is by telling their own stories. The Task Force for Federally Sentenced Women developed a report called Creating Choices, which attempted to relocate the power to make choices in womens' lives out of the hands of prison officials and back to the women themselves because, according to the findings of the Task Force, it is only when people are treated with respect and when they are empowered can they take responsibility for their actions and make meaningful decisions. Monture-Okanee reflects on the irony of the final report

How often do we stop to think about the minorities of this country and how they become involved and are treated in the criminal justice system? I surmise; only some of us will concern ourselves with such details. For some like myself; we might work with individuals of the Aboriginal community or have interacted with members of this group whether through school or work. Canada “had an Aboriginal identity in 2011 of 4 % or 1.4 million people” (Kelly-Scott and Smith, 2015). Of this total there is a gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in Canada’s Criminal Justice System. This overrepresentation of Aboriginals in the CJS comes as a result of socio economic factors, sentencing reforms, systemic discrimination, education and employment and victimization of Aboriginal women. In partial fulfilment of this course, this paper will address the leading factors which has led to the overrepresentation of this group in the CJS.

When considering why criminal law is important in achieving justice for Indigenous Australians it is pertinent to recognise that Indigenous people are grossly over-represented in the criminal justice system. Recent data suggests that Indigenous Australians aged 10 and over are 7.5 times

Nancy Macdonald (2016), an editor who works for the Maclean’s, writes an article on the way Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens are treated by the law and police force. At least 36 per cent of the women and 25 per cent of men, who are Indigenous, were already sentenced to provincial and territorial custody in Canada. Nancy explains, from these scores, these statistics make up at least 4 per cent of the national population. She also explains, if you add in the federal prisons, the statistics will now account for 22.8 per cent Indigenous inmates of the total incarcerated population.

There is alarming number of Indigenous Australia’s currently serving time in prisons and from 2001 the numbers has been increasing. According to Krieg (2006) Indigenous incarceration may be the direct consequences of inadequate housing, mental health, substance use, family violence and disability.

Honorable Minister Kai, Today I present my provisional report on the Aboriginal incarceration rates. As you know the Prime Minister in his Closing the Gap speech mentioned the indigenous community being deprived of jobs and education, which are important issues that require further investigation. However he hasn’t discussed the high rates of incarcerated indigenous people and the impact, which can have adverse effects on many other aspects such as education and job seeking. I have conducted wide research and gathered extensive data and evidence on the recent statistics graphing the evident difference in the incarceration levels between indigenous and non-indigenous people.

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) in 1991 provided documentation on the death of indigenous Australians in prison or police custody. In doing so the report highlighted the substantial over representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Criminal Justice system and provided detailed analysis of underlying factors. The reports findings were believed to be the foundation of change. However, regardless of a range of policy changes and crime prevention programs in repose to the report, over representation in the criminal justice system remains. The issue is one of the most significant social justice and public policy issue in the contemporary Australian criminal justice system. The RCIADIC made 339 recommendations, most of which have been implemented into the criminal justice system over the past two decades. Never the less the systematic over representation remains prevalent. The purpose of this essay is to understand over representation as it exists in the contemporary criminal justice system. Particular emphasise will be placed on the levels of women and youths in the criminal justice system, their contact with the system and empirically based risk factors pertaining to over representation. An evaluation of alternative programs in the pre and post sentencing stage and the impact such programs would have on the over representation will be conducted.

The over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system is a large problem in society and reasons as to why this may be occurring need to be examined (Walker & McDonald, 1995; AIC, 2013). Indigenous Australians make up less than three per cent of the overall Australian population, however Indigenous people are over-represented in Australian prison populations, with imprisonment rates that are around 12 times those of the rest of the Australian population (AIC, 2013). Rates of over-representation are even higher in juvenile detention, with a 10-17 year old Indigenous person being around 24 times more likely to be in detention than a non-Indigenous person of the same age (AIC, 2013; Cunneen & White, 2011). Indigenous Australians overrepresentation in the criminal justice system is usually due to offences pertaining to violence and public disorder (ABS, 2010; Hogg & Carrignton, 2006). This is endorsed by the fact that Indigenous Australians currently make up 40 per cent of those imprisoned for assault offences (AIC, 2013). The over representation of Indigenous Australians in the criminal justice system may be attributed to a variety of reasons, known as risk factors (AIC, 2013).

The United States justice system can be described as a cycle, where people enter the prison system, are released, and upon failure to integrate into society soon find themselves back behind bars. Although the means in which the cycle is perpetuated can be argued, the rate of re-offenders is constantly trying to be reduced. One term used to define this type of convict is recidivism, which is the repeat criminal action of a convicted inmate. Recidivism is fastly becoming a issue in the United States as it has been shown that 70% of convicted offenders have been reconvicted within three years of release (Esperian, 2010, p. 322). As crime of any background can be detrimental to society, this high rate of reentry into the justice system has stimulated

Recidivism is the result of a former prisoner relapsing into criminal activity and returning to prison for a new offense. It is estimated that approximately two-thirds of

What a sad state of affairs that going through corrective service or the juvenile justice system is seen as a rite of passage for some Indigenous young boys since their traditional /cultural rights, power and status had been usurped by colonisation and racist/assimilationist policies (Marchetti, 2008). For others, remand provides relief from the cycle of substance abuse and alcohol, and three meals a day along with a bit of education. It is seen as an alternative to intergenerational disadvantage (Mathieson & Dwyer, 2016).

The authors, researchers at Eastern Kentucky University, used data from the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice to test their hypothesis that gender, age, victimization history, and presence of special education needs are the factors that cause juveniles to recidivate once they are released from residential places. Their hypothesis supported that all the variables in the study were significant to the males, but were not significant to the females. In this study, females are less likely to recidivate than males and gender had a strong predictor of recidivism. The recidivism rate in this study was higher than the rates recorded in other studies because this study was not successful for accounting at a large proportion of variability in

Evidence has continued to show that the potential for recidivism remains high (Jones, 2006), as around 50% of those juveniles who are incarcerated reoffend within one year of being released (House, 2010). Worse yet are those who are housed with adult offenders, as socialization in jails and prisons is believed to increase criminal knowledge and behavior, not prevent it (JRank Articles, 2015). Loeber and Farrington report that those arrested prior to the age of 14 are more than twice as likely to become repeat offenders as adults compared to juveniles who are arrested after the age of 14 (Zhang et al, 2011). And finally, with respect to both social and educational characteristics, youthful offenders were more likely to recidivate if they came from a single parent home without a father or were of special education status (Zhang et al, 2011).