Defined Terms

Baker's Dozen Unsustainable Problems is testimony that the more recent Warehouse Sentencing in some western countries, driven by Penal Populism, has failed Dozenly

Below are extracts from Jails bursting with unsentenced prisoners as costs also soar - The Age -  23 April 2018 re that state of Victoria's Correctional Services:

“With more police on the beat, tougher sentencing and bail laws and an increasing population, prisoner numbers are expected to continue to rise and we are planning for that growth,” Corrections Minister, Gayle Tierney, said.

The state’s overall prison population has risen more than 70 per cent in the past decade, adding hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the cost of managing inmates.

There are 7400 prisoners in Victoria (up from 4176 in June 2007), about 2600 of whom are being processed through the courts, figures for March show.

There were about 1400 unsentenced prisoners in the state's jails at the time of the previous election.

Sentencing Advisory Council chairman Arie Freiberg said the increase in prisoners On Remand had been massive and was driven in large part by the government’s response to community concerns about offences committed by people on bail or parole.

Corrections Minister Tierney said there had been ''significant growth in the prison population since 2013, and the previous Liberal government did little to keep up with demand, overcrowding the system and making it less safe for staff and prisoners”.

Almost 2000 new prison places have been created since Labor came to power, a further 470 are planned, and 520 additional prison staff have been hired, Ms Tierney said.

The 1000-bed medium-security Ravenhall prison was opened in October, 3½ years after the former Napthine government signed contracts to build it."

Many Prisons Are At Breaking Point With Associated Problems contains a plethora of evidence consistent with the above in Victorian prisons.  However, there are eleven other legacies of the folly of Warehouse Sentencing.

An estimated 108 billion circa Homo sapiens have entered terra firma initially congregating in East Africa approx. 125,000 years ago, albeit life expectancy/average life duration was not high relative to modern times.

65,000 years ago or thereabouts Homo sapiens started to migrate from East Africa to populate the planet. 

Over 97% of those 108b circa have lived under a Retribution by Capital Punishment and Corporal Punishment The majority of the current 7.6b circa human population today live under both Capital and Corporal punishment edicts.  Rulers in countries such as China, India, Singapore, Russia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Arab States, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Japan opine that for some egregious crimes, incarceration is costly and an ineffective Deterrent to further behavioural transgressions.  These countries expend their Public Purse more so on health, education and transportation of citizens that are, or will become, productive taxpayers.  

          "Amnesty International recorded a stark 54% increase in the number of executions carried out globally in 2015. At least 1,634 people were executed, 573 more than in 2014.4  These numbers do not include China

 EXECUTIONS RECORDED GLOBALLY IN 2015:
 Afghanistan (1), Bangladesh (4), Chad (10), China (+), Egypt (22+), India (1), Indonesia (14), Iran (977+), Iraq (26+), Japan (3), Jordan (2), Malaysia (+), North Korea (+), Oman (2), Pakistan (326), Saudi Arabia (158+), Singapore (4), Somalia (25+: Federal Government of Somalia 17+; Somaliland 6+; Jubaland 2+), South Sudan (5+), Sudan (3), Taiwan (6), UAE (1), USA (28), Vietnam (+) and Yemen (8+).

CHINA EXECUTED 2,400 PRISONERS LAST YEAR, SAYS HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP

Countries that have diverted from that inherent Homo sapiens punishment philosophy of an 'Eye for and eye' have done so only in the last scintilla of humans' (Homo erectus, Neanderthal and Homo sapiens) 2.3m years occupancy of terra firma.

Islam practices Sharia law, where punishment is often carried out on a Friday, either executions or floggings.  The deterrent effect upon those required to witness the application of punishment is cogent. 

Early Capital Punishment practices globally evidence the seemingly horrific punishments that rulers of the era sentenced to remedy criminal behaviour in an earlier incarnation of Homo sapiens.

Judicial Corporal Punishment previously sentenced in Australia records some dreadfully harsh punishments inflicted even 200 years ago.

Incarceration as a Punishment has only been sentenced by some Western Countries, during the last scintilla of the 65,000 years circa that Homo sapiens advanced beyond East Africa.

Building jails to house criminal offenders for more than a holding facility, until court hearings and Corporal Punishment and Capital Punishment was sentenced, has only occurred in the last 300 years and not in all countries.

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:

           "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."  

Great Britain, USA, Brazil, Canada, Australia et al are each experiencing the Baker's Dozen Unsustainable Problems which are a testament that relying on jail incarceration as the sole form of Punishment and Deterrent has failed in those countries. 

Economic necessity dictates that Australian Governments learn from: 

*        Capital Punishment sentenced in two Commonwealth of Nations countries in South-East Asia with low crime rates.

*        Corporal Punishments sentenced in three Commonwealth of Nations countries in South-East Asia    'ditto'.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA - A Memorandum by the South Australian Branch of the Howard League for Penal Reform dated Oct 1961 sets out Noble Ambitions for Desisting Corporal Punishment in South Australia Alas, 60 years later the Baker's Dozen Unsustainable Problems Within Australian Prison System has evidence that the dignified, righteous virtues and aspirations of the South Australian Branch of the Howard League for Penal Reform have not materialised, partially due to the subsequent illicit drug scourge which could not have been envisaged in the mid-20th century.

Economic necessity also dictates that Australian Governments adopt: 

*       Restorative Justice Model Successfully Adopted in Scandinavia since the late 20th Century; and
*      Texas Justice Reinvestment, in particular Improving Responses to People with Mental Illnesses with Specialist Drug & Alcohol Treatment.

"Inmates in four federal prisons holding some of Brazil’s most notorious criminals will be able to read up to 12 works of literature, philosophy, science or classics to trim a maximum 48 days off their sentence each year, the government announced."

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

         "We've been trying the same model of punishment and incarceration for the last 200 years, and our recidivism rates indicate that it clearly isn't working."