A number of organisations, including the Australian Lawyers Alliance, Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT, Justice and Equity Centre, Human Rights Law Centre, Justice Action and NSW Council for Civil Liberties, have now written an open letter to NSW Minister for Corrections Anoulack Chanthivong urging him to reverse this change and instead follow the Ombudsman’s path.
“We share the Ombudsman’s concerns and strongly oppose the decision to lower the standard of proof for correctional centre offences,” the open letter says. “This was a regressive reform which cannot, and does not, address the systemic failures identified in the Ombudsman’s report.”
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Justice & Equity Centre policy lawyer Lucy Kelley says the changes will have a real negative impact on people in prison. “Our primary concern is that these reforms are going to have really harsh consequences for prisoners in NSW and they’re going to disproportionately impact populations that are already disenfranchised by the criminal legal system, and already over-represented,” she says. “This is a really regressive step and one that directly flies in the face of the Ombudsman’s recommendations for a fairer and more effective inmate discipline system.”
