The Baker's Dozen Unsustainable Problems Within Australian Prison System are due to inept performance by our duly elected policy/law makers.  Government should inter alia "recognise and support the critical roles played by civil society and some non-profit organisations"  or 
Take an interest in governments' ineffectiveness to reduce/mitigate the Baker's Dozen Unsustainable Prison Problems

Below are extracts from an academic paper The Role of Government in Australia by Dr. Nicola Henry, La Trobe University - 2012:

"It should support civil society and its multiplicity of voices and activities. It should provide the economic framework and the essential infrastructure for public and private enterprise. It should be concerned with the well-being of all citizens. It should protect the physical environment and it should act to alleviate the negative impacts of the market place on individuals, groups and environment. These roles are often poorly understood and undervalued.

Under the Australian Constitution, the -

*        legislature (the parliament) has the power to make laws,

*        executive (the government) has the power to implement the law; and

*        judiciary (the legal system) has the power to interpret the law.

Australia has a federal system within which power is divided between the Commonwealth and State governments. State governments in Australia have their own constitutions, legislatures, bureaucracies, courts and police. The Constitution gives the Commonwealth powers, such as powers relating to foreign affairs and military defence. The decisive Commonwealth power is the taxation power, which enables the Commonwealth to raise large sums of money and to control its distribution. Recent High Court rulings related to the Trade and Commerce and Corporations powers have also greatly extended the powers of the Commonwealth.

Requirements for a strong and effective state

There are several key requirements that need to be satisfied for a state to play its diverse roles purposefully, effectively and appropriately. In Australia these include:

1.     An effective parliament with an upper house (Senate at the federal level) that acts as a genuine house of review and as the means by which long term issues are kept in the public eye

2.     A strong and independent judicial system that is fiercely defended

3.     Transparency of government decision-making whereby government behaviour is continuously subjected to independent review by auditors general, ombudsmen and parliamentary committees. Whistleblowers who draw attention to malpractice and inefficiency also need to be fully protected

4.     An independent bureaucracy that is able to offer fearless advice to Ministers and the Government and which does not live in constant fear of reprisals for principled behaviour and outspoken comment. Such a bureaucracy should also be well trained in client services; there are outstanding models such as Australia Post

5.     The protection of the integrity of public institutions and appointments to them. In other countries, such as the UK, there are systems for formal appointments to public offices, to minimise political bias and ministerial whim
 

6.     Recognition and support for the critical roles played by civil society and non-profit organisations

7.     The protection of media diversity to enable citizens to have access to many different media opinions and to ensure that the media are effective in supporting all the other facets of strong, effective and accountable government. Lack of media diversity is a serious problem in Australia"

In summarising the above extracts, government, be it State or Commonwealth, should -

*        support civil society and its multiplicity of voices and activities

*        be concerned with the well-being of all citizens

*        be a genuine house of review and as the means by which long term issues are kept in the public eye

*        recognise and support the critical roles played by civil society and non-profit organisations

Below are extracts from 51. Legislative powers of the Parliament

   "The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power¹² to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:

(xiv)    the service and execution throughout the Commonwealth of the civil and criminal process and the judgments of the courts of the States;

(xv)     the recognition throughout the Commonwealth of the laws, the public Acts and records, and the judicial proceedings of the States;

(xviii)   the influx of criminals;"

The highlighted obligations borne by Australia's Commonwealth and State governments (in the above two paragraphs) evidence that -

A.        the Baker's Dozen Unsustainable Problems Within Australian Prison System are due to inept performance by our duly elected policy/law makers; and

B.        for a state to play its diverse roles purposefully, effectively and appropriately, government should inter alia "recognise and support the critical roles played by civil society and non-profit organisations".

Below is an extract from Some UK journalists have espoused the merits of re-introducing hanging of vicious murderers which would discourage others from murdering that shoulders the responsibility for comparable U.K. prison problems on "...the squeamishness of politicians..." to do the job that they were elected to:

"Hang it!  Here we go again  - Peter Hitchens  29 April 2013

“I favour hanging because of its extreme swiftness when efficiently carried out, combined with its huge moral force.  There are many arguments for the death penalty beginning with the placing a special value on human life, moving on to deterrence.  Beneath all those arguments lies a religious question (this is the case with most major issues of our time).

If man has no soul, and this is the only life we have, and there is no eternity, nor any divine justice, then the only arguments for the death penalty are utilitarian ones. In an age of unbelief, I tend to concentrate on the utilitarian ones. But even those lead me to the view that the act of execution, while not being actively cruel or involving mental or physical torture, should be frightening and violent, rather than pseudo-medical.  I would be cowardly if I did not say this. I do not enjoy saying it, or thinking it. But those who wish to have anything to do with standing between the populace and evil must sometimes face directly the unpleasant duties that may fall on them. The main reason for the abolition of the death penalty is the squeamishness of politicians, who enjoy office but do not like all the duties which power loads on to their (often rather narrow) shoulders.  Far easier to them to leave the matter to some trembling constable with a gun in a dark street, who can be disavowed if it all goes wrong later."  

In Nov 2018, ex-Tory minister, John Hayes, called for return of capital punishment amid a bloody crime wave.  Hayes presented written parliamentary questions to the British parliament asserting that capital punishment 'should be available to the courts'.

Invariably, when a politician/s is shown to have been derelict in his/her "policy determining efforts", that he/she/them retort, "We need to have a conversation..............We need to have a conversation.............."We need to have a conversation.............." 

Why don't our duly elected politicians merely do what they were elected to do?  

Why don't they -

1. direct their 'executive' government to research all pertinent information to identify all the problems and all the solutions (Scandinavia,  Texas, and Northern Italy) and present their findings to our politicians, 

2. read all their findings,

3. comprehend all their findings,

4. stop gawking down at what others are doing or saying, whilst perched up on the fence,

5. get down off the fence and crunch in an Excel spreadsheet that contains dozens of linked worksheets all the costs and benefits of alternative strategies based on their findings adopting the same methodology used to create a Base Case Financial Model; and

6. pass a bill or bills to mitigate the problem/s?

That is what the Australian Constitution constitutes.

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