Maintaining Law and Order amidst lingering COVID19, Baker's Dozen Unsustainable Prison Problems, resultant crippling Fiscal Revenues due to ineffective Deterrents (across Level 1 to Level 6 of the Penalty Scale) and Australia's whacko Recidivism rates, now necessitate Thinking Outside the Cell

Invitation to Australians concerned about the social and economic cost of above four detrimental issues to -

1.   click on some of the coloured embedded threads within this 'Invitation' page;

2.   then read the writer's Discussion Paper Thinking Outside the Cell; and

3.   email a completed Peer Review Form and Peer Reviewer's Responses to Sentences Form to scribepj@gmail.com

A retired banker, Philip Johnston, Sydney NSW Australia researched and prepared a Discussion Paper because -

A.       of the Baker's Dozen Unsustainable Problems resulting from Sentencing many people found guilty of a serious offence to a lengthy Sentence in a tiny steel cage as the Punishment and Deterrent; and

B.       Australia's whacko prisoner Recidivism rates are patent evidence that jail incarceration is not an effective Deterrent to discourage other prospective law-breakers from similarly offending.

Below is an extract from the Newcastle Herald article Keith Owen Goodbun pleaded guilty (on 22 Nov 2018) to murdering estranged wife Molly Goodbun at Horseshoe Bend on 7 Oct 2016:

“I can go to jail for 30 f---ing years and get a bed and breakfast every day,” Goodbun told detectives during his police interview. “I know where I’m going. And I’m quite f---ing happy about it, I tell you, quite happy about it.”

The Australian public, the voters in any referendum, have no idea that the –

A.       per inmate cost of Maximum Security Incarceration is $175k pa. nor that 2,088 inmates were serving a Sentence of '20 years and over', or ‘Other', or a 'Life Sentence' as at 30 June ‘19; or

B.       average cost of Sentencing a convicted murderer to Life Without Parole in Australia is a smidgeon over $7 million -  $7,000,559; or

C.       as at 30 June 2019 1,790 that have been convicted of Murder were serving exceedingly long Sentences, with the vast majority Never To Be Released; or

D.       the projected cost to imprison Anita Cobby’s five murderers in Maximum Security Incarceration until all five have died in jail is $42.525 million circa (the offenders were younger than the mean age of the 76 convicted murderers profiled in Section B that calc'd the average cost to be $7,000,559); or

E.       the prospect of a Sentence of a lengthy jail incarceration, as Punishment, did not Deter  142 people being Murdered in the 12 months to 30 June 2018.

The Discussion Paper -

a)       has reviewed over 400 articles, reports, papers and submissions accessible in Articles & Reports - Bibliography (many of the embedded threads therein access a htm file of the extracted PDF file);

b)       provides over a hundred Defined Terms to ensure clarity/reduce misinterpretation;

c)       has viewed over 30 YouTubes of TV News Clips of lower level crime, ostensibly armed robberies at petrol stations, convenience stores and motor car theft, where if apprehended are generally given a slap on the wrist, with many repeating the offence almost immediately

d)       proposes Two recommended changes to Sentencing; and  

e)       supports Australia adopting Canada's precedent in not excluding inmates that have no prospect of ever being released from prison from Canada's 'assisted dying' provisions, due to the -

           *      murders that those long-term inmates have committed; and

           *      the depressed mental state of those long-term inmates with no prospect of release.

As reported in "Australia's overcrowded prisons could struggle to control coronavirus",  "Coronavirus is a ticking time bomb for the Australian prison system" and Prison advocates call on Government to take more action to prevent COVID-19 outbreak in jails, the virus COVID-19 brought forth yet another reason to consider other forms of Sentencing, than merely jail incarceration, in order to maintain law and order in a civil society.

Following the death of unarmed African American man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis earlier in 2020, public outrage was further stoked in Australia when a Sydney police officer was caught on camera slamming an Indigenous teenager face-first into the ground.  Black Lives Matter advocates across Australia called for alternatives to imprisoning indigenous Australians, because -

*        434 aboriginals have reportedly died in custody since 1991; and

*        Indigenous Australians make up approx 3% of the Australian population, yet as at June 2006 -

          A.      Indigenous prisoners represented 24% of the total prisoner population; and

          B.      Indigenous people represented 40% of those aged 10–17 years under juvenile justice supervision.

In its paper Human Rights and Prisoners, the Australian Human Rights Commission acknowledges that "The conditions within prisons in Australia have at times raised significant human rights concerns."

In view of the above issues/concerns and the Baker's Dozen Unsustainable Problems within the Australian Prison System, Australians that are uncomfortable about Sentencing convicted criminals to a lengthy jail Sentence as the primary form of Punishment and Deterrent are invited to -

*        read the Discussion Paper;

*        save the below listed  B. (Word file) to their computer and then complete B.;

*        save the below listed C. (Word file) to their computer and then complete C.; and

*        email completed B. and C. Word files to scribepj@gmail.com in PDF format that enables higher integrity than a Word file:

         A.      Thinking Outside the Cell -  Discussion Paper

         B.      Peer Review Form  (Word file)

         C.      Peer Reviewer's Responses to Punishments Sentenced Form (Word file) to Questions asked on the Sentences imposed on 32 of the 76 Murderers profiled in Section B.

In order to open a URL embedded thread in a Word document, you might need to press the 'Control Key' before clicking on the thread.

Philip Johnston will acknowledge receipt of each completed Peer Review Form and Peer Reviewer's Responses to Punishments Sentences Form by reply email within 3 days of receipt at scribepj@gmail.com

Section B of the Peer Review Form invites any question/s and/or comments.  Philip Johnston will answer any questions by reply email within 7 days of receipt.

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NB:     Why is the domain name www.AustraliaSlowLearner.world ? 

          Below is an extract from Chapter 3 'The economic and social costs of imprisonment' of an Australian Parliamentary Report dated 2013 - tabled 7 years ago -  that prima facie indicates that Australian governments have been busily 'sitting on their hands for years and years whilst the deleterious issues chronicled in Baker's Dozen Unsustainable Problems have been palpable for many years:

          The majority of global countries do not deploy jail incarceration as the primary form of Punishment and Deterrent  for Sadistic, Brutal, Heinous Often Unprovoked Murderers. 

          Australian State and Territory Governments  Sentenced  Capital Punishment until the middle of the last Century - for almost 200 years in NSW and Tasmania

          Judicial Corporal Punishment was administered to adults in Australia until the mid 1940s and is still applied in three adjacent members of the Commonwealth of Nations in South-East Asia.

          Western society has jumped ahead along the punishment/deterrent curve ostensibly due to the deleterious impact of the illicit drug scourge.  

          Net operating annual expenditure on Corrective Services across Australia in 2017-18 was $4.416b - prison incarceration accounts for 85% and community correctional facilities 15% - a real increase of 35% from five years earlier in 2012-13 when it was $3.272b.  During the same five year period, the Australian population increased by 1.86m from 23.13m to 24.99m at June 2018 - an increase of 8.05%.  Recidivism/re-offending rates is a patent testament that lengthy jail incarceration is NOT crime Deterrent-effective expenditure of the Public Purse.  

         The recently deceased, Ivan Milat, viciously and sadistically murdered seven young backpackers in the Belanglo State Forest over 3½ years.  Ivan Milat attempted suicide whilst incarcerated at least twice.  He was Never To Be Released from Maximum Security Incarceration that ultimately cost the Public Purse  $4.025m ($175,000 pa x 23 years jail).  Many Lifers deemed Never to be Released, die a thousand deaths; experiencing a manic depressive QOL. 

          43,028 inmates were incarcerated in Australia's state and territory prisons at 30 June 2019.  1,032 of those inmates were serving a Sentence of '20 years and over', 'Life Sentence' or 'Other'.  There may be 100 or more Monstrous Convicted Murderers -  Martin Bryant, Peter Dupas, Paul Haigh, John Travers, Michael Murdoch, Michael, Garry & Leslie Murphy, Mark Valera, et al  in Maximum Security Incarceration in State and Territory prisons that will Never Be Released that are manic depressive.  Many of these prisoners have attempted suicide.  Each cost the Public Purse $175,000 pa. that should be expended on the health, education and transportation of taxpayers and future taxpayers, which is how our major trading partners expend their Public Purse.

          In order to maintain law and order cost-effectively during an extended era of social distancing, the Australian Criminal Justice System needs to revert to Punishments Sentenced by our country's Forefather Governors during the initial 69 years of the 20th Century when less than two murderers were executed annually and Sentence -

           A.      One, Two or perhaps Three Executions annually by hanging of future Convicted Monstrous Murderers that were found guilty Beyond any Doubt and are deemed Lifers Never to be Released; and

           B.      Flogging for Level 6 to Level 2 criminal offences (listed under 'Sample Offences' in Penalty Scale,
 if Australia is to  -

            a)       materially Deter future criminal activity, not limited to murder, rape, Femicide, Filicide, Street Gang Theft, drug trafficking, culpable driving causing death, embezzlement; insider trading;

            b)       noticeably reduce most of the Baker's Dozen Unsustainable Problems within the Australian Prison System; and

            c)       reduce burgeoning annual expenditure on the Justice Sector - $18.431b ($18,431,000,000) in 2018-19, in particular the $4.416 billion expended on Correctional Services in 2017-18 - a real increase of 35% from five years earlier in 2012-13.