All Territory Aboriginal persons facing criminal charges since August last year received high quality legal representation unless they chose not to use the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, or it had a conflict of interest.
CEO Anthony Beven was responding to allegations made anonymously to the Alice Springs News that “there is more chaos at NAAJA”.
He says it continues to perform “exceptionally” despite record numbers of Aboriginal people taken into custody.
“This representation was provided in courts in the major centres and in all bush circuit courts around the NT.
“NAAJA in 2024 also represented the interests of Aboriginal people in a number of high profile coronial inquests in the Northern Territory and in civil proceedings affecting the legal rights of Aboriginal people.
“Prisoner support programs continue to support the record number of prisoners in the NT to transition out of correctional institutions.”
Mr Beven says NAAJA in November 2024 completed substantial restructure of its governance, elected a new chairperson and passed a new constitution.
“NAAJA in 2023/24 also delivered another unqualified audit and all of its reporting and acquittals to its funding bodies and regulatory agencies are up to date.”
Meanwhile the Government will introduce a Bill to support corrections officers and ease workforce pressures, allowing the appointment of special corrections and parole officers, including external workforce and interstate personnel.
“Custodial staff are working around 168,000 hours each year escorting prisoners, including for court appearances, prison transfers, and hospital bedsits – equating to around $11m annually in overtime costs,” says Minister for Corrections Gerard Maley.
“Since the August election there has been increase of more than 500 prisoners.
“This initiative will not replace the ongoing corrections recruitment program.”
UPDATE 4pm: The Police Association welcomes the latest Federal funding commitment to the NT. Of the total $842m over six years, $206m has been allocated to remote policing. NTPA president Nathan Finn says he is looking forward to seeing a breakdown in more detail.
UPDATE 8.30am February 10, 2025:
The latest Report on Government Services shows that total net operating and capital costs for Australian prisons have soared to $6.8 billion per year, up 30% from 2019-20.
On average, 43,001 people per day were held in Australian prisons during 2023-24. More than one-third (34.5%) of people imprisoned by state and territory Governments are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This proportion is significantly higher in the Northern Territory (88.3%), Western Australia (43.9%) and Queensland (38.5%).
Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri said the latest data highlighted the critical need for policymakers to steer away from punitive law-and-order policies that funnelled more people into prison.
Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri says: “Jailing is failing all Australians. Our over-reliance on prisons costs taxpayers an exorbitant amount.
“The ROGS data shows the majority of people who go to prison return to prison with a new sentence within two years of their release. Evidence-based solutions to reducing crime exist outside of prisons and outside of the justice system.
“We can’t build safer communities by building prison beds. We need to look at what works to address the drivers of contact with the justice system.”
“We need to properly resource and expand proven support services in the community including First Nations led responses, and across all points of the justice system, to break cycles of justice system involvement.”
In the Northern Territory, the total adult prison population has increased by 28% over the last five years (the largest jurisdictional increase in prison population in Australia)
Dr Sotiri said the direction taken by newly elected governments in Queensland and the Northern Territory was likely to further increase the number of people in prison and drive the costs of incarceration higher for Australian taxpayers without addressing the root causes of crime.
“Tough-on-crime rhetoric and policy simply drive more people through a revolving door in and out of the criminal justice system,” she said.
The Commonwealth clearly continues to reject equality upon Australians.
Most Australians overwhelmingly voted for equality.
The Commonwealth apparently maintains racial identification as its own measure, despite Australian voters twice voted for equality, no more, no less.