The number of prisoners in Australian jails rose by 4% in 2008. WA continues to lock up Indigenous people at a very high rate: CLA has asked the WA Attorney-General to mount a special program to bring the Indigenous imprisonment percentage down, but he h…
State and Territory Governments in Australia are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on locking juvenile offenders behind bars, when diversion programs are both cheaper and more effective. Mission Australia, like CLA, calls for targeted reduction of…
WA Corrective Services Minister Christian Porter will not aim to cut Indigenous people in jails from 42% of the state’s prison population to less than 40% by Australia Day 2010 (Indigenous people comprise about 3.6% of the population). He has rejected CL…
In a highly unusual move, the Director of Public Prosecutions in NSW, Nicholas Cowdery, has issued a ‘General Commentary’ which slams the NSW bikie legislation as excessive, calls for better enforcement by police of existing laws (rather than new laws…
As President Obama solidifies the USA’s stance against torture, Australia’s internal position is still uncertain. We need to legislate locally to make sure torture is as legally repugnant as it is morally, Prof. George Williams says.
Our torture laws…
A first-hand account in a book (‘Court in the Middle’) by convicted lawyer Andrew Fraser, lays bare the obscene reality behind the ‘rehabilitation’ rhetoric in Australia’sprisons. Keith McEwan provides a precis of Fraser’s telling comments.
For thos…
Ignoring Ausralia’s agreed Model Criminal Code would be a mistake, CLA has advised the ACT Government as it plans to fiddle with the mens rea (having intent) provisions of murder law, possibly as a reaction to one horrific case.Read submission »…
What should be the relationship between police and citizens? How should police behave at mass protests? Barrister and former UK Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald asks some pertinent questions, after a death at the G20 protests in London, in t…
The UN’s Human Rights Committee has delivered severe rebukes over Australia’s recent liberties and rights performance, particularly concerning abandoning some rights, excessive terrorist legislation, indigenous issues across the board – and even the use…
John Brennan, security advisor to the Obama-Whitehouse and respected former senior CIA agent, affirmed that America performed “extraordinary renditions” and hid people in “black site” prisons overseas.
Brennan argues strongly against releasing three…