Just like any other government initiative, law and order measures – such as extra police, tougher penalties, etc – should be evaluated for cost-benefit success or cost-effectiveness by an independent agency, says crime bureau chief Don Weatherburn. And he says, we need a better informed public and more rigorous scrutiny by the media.

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Terry Briscoe died in custody in Alice Springs early in 2012. Police say he fell and hit his head, soon after dying of cardiac arrest. People arrested with him allege police officers bashed him. CLA doesn't know which is correct, but we do know that both police and the NT justice system are on trial in this case. CLA believes interstate police should be called in to assist the coroner's investigation, rather than NT police investigating their own.  Here is an open letter from the dead man's uncle to the Chief Minister of the NT.

...and NT Police Association chief Vince Kelly has penned an impassioned letter about Aborigines in the NT, in which he defends his police officers and asserts there was no bashing.

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As Disability Commissioner Graeme Innes so clearly explains, “Imprisonment can do a grave injustice to the intellectually impaired” – SMH/The Age 29/12/2011– Prisons also fail to rehabilitate many other prisoners. With boredom so prevalent and prisons inadequately staffed with qualified people to undertake the difficult task of helping prisoners turn their lives around, it is no wonder that about 43% of prisoners return to prison within two years of release. Pre-release and post-release programs seem to be non-existent.

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A simple signature on a treaty, which the Labor Government has promised for more than four years, would bring relief to people penned behind bars these holidays. CLA is a signatory to a letter asking new Attorney-General Nicola Roxon to sign the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. With a stroke of the pen, a formal inspection regime would open up Australia's dark places to the light of external scrutiny.

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Women prisoners are locked behind razor wire in maximum security jails when they should be housed in much less stringent conditions, reports indicate. WA could solve its problem by building more lower security facilities and slashing the numbers in jail generally by not imprisoning people for relatively minor, non-violent offences, CLA's Rex Widerstrom says.

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Human rights law works best when it tweaks the ordinary law to be more uniform, fair, and understandable by the average citizen. In the ACT, the Legislative Assembly has its first chance to achieve those tri-aims by reforming the Bail Act: Human Rights Commissioner Dr Helen Watchirs makes out the case for positive legislative action.

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Australia's counter-terrorism law and policy is 'close to moral and political bankruptcy', Dr Chris Michaelsen writes. He calls for a comprehensive review and reform of Australian anti-terrorism laws – 'the most draconian in the Western world' – as well as an inquiry what went wrong in the cases of Habib and Hicks.

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