Policing and detention
Media and commentary related to our work to provide critical oversight of NSW Police, prisons and youth detention centres, to protect human rights and ensure fair and lawful treatment.
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NSW Police fall short in response to consorting laws criticisms
The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) has published NSW Police Force responses to recommendations made in the LECC’s review of consorting laws. The LECC review showed the laws are largely not being used to disrupt the serious, organised crime for which they were intended but are being misused, including against people under the age of…
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UN committee report slams Australia’s ‘inhuman’ prisons
Australia’s prison and detention practices are inhuman, degrading and in some cases may amount to torture, a United Nations report has found. The UN has delivered a scathing assessment of Australia’s treatment of prisoners, immigration detainees and juvenile offenders, despite attempts to block inspectors from local facilities. … Public Interest Advocacy Centre principal solicitor Jonathan…
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PIAC responds to scathing UN subcommittee report on Australian detention
The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (‘SPT’) visited Australia in October 2022 to investigate Australia’s compliance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The SPT visited 6 prisons, 3 youth detention centres, 5…
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Canberra Times: Police bin unjust surveillance amid ‘bombshell’ report
Comments from CEO Jonathon Hunyor featured in the Canberra Times.
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Unreasonable, unjust, oppressive and improperly discriminatory: watchdog blasts police on STMP
A scathing report from the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) says NSW Police use of the Suspect Targeting Management Plan (STMP) against young people ‘amounted to agency maladministration’ and ‘could possibly meet the threshold for serious misconduct’. It recognises the STMP policy followed by police was unreasonable, unjust, oppressive and improperly discriminatory in its effect…
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NSW Police use of Suspect Targeting Management Plan could meet ‘threshold for serious misconduct’
The Youth Justice Coalition noted on Monday that it has warned for more than five years that the STMP “not only pushes children into increased contact with the criminal justice system, but also that it is unreasonably oppressive, harassing, stigmatising and racially biased”. The coalition includes the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT), the Public Interest Advocacy…
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ABC News: Report finds NSW Police suspect lists led to ‘gross over-representation’ of Indigenous people
We worked tirelessly to defeat the STMP, which unlawfully targeted First Nations people.
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NSW Police are not closing the gap
A report by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) into the NSW Police policing and engagement with Aboriginal people and communities is critical of the force’s failure to take seriously its obligations to Close the Gap and reduce Aboriginal over-representation in the criminal justice system. Jonathon Hunyor, CEO of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, joined…
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Closing the Gap targets would lead to ‘competing duties’: NSW Police Commissioner
The report also confirmed Aboriginal people continue to be significantly over-represented in the application of the Suspect Targeting Management Plan (STMP). Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) has called for reform on the “harmful” STMP programme, including stopping its use on children and youths. PIAC argue once a person is placed on the STMP, they are…
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NSW Police urged to do more in Closing the Gap
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre said in a statement that the LECC’s report ’emphasises that NSW Police need to do more to reduce the stark overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in contact with the criminal justice system.’ The LECC’s review highlighted Aboriginal people are overrepresented in the use of Suspect Target Management Plans, a tool deployed…