Criminal Justice System Under Pressure
| Published date | 01 June 1988 |
| Date | 01 June 1988 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486588802100201 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
AUST &NZ
JOURNAL
OF CRIMINOLOGY (June 1988) 21 (65-66)
EDITORIAL
65
Criminal Justice System Under Pressure
The
number
of persons being dealt with in every section of
the
criminal justice
system is increasing.
The
effect is most noticeable in New South Wales and Victoria,
but
there
seems no reason to doubt
that
all jurisdictions in Australia will be affected
in
the
coming years.
The
causes of this increase are many, from economic factors
to hardening attitudes on law and order.
The
impact on
the
bureaucratic
management of the criminal justice system is likely to be profound.
In most jurisdictions sentences are increasing, in many, penalties are increasing
or planned to increase, and laws are being changed to permit more custodial
sentences.
Court
delays have increased in many States, leading to an increase in
remand population. This is also affected by variations in
the
difficulty of getting
bail,
The
extent of this effect is problematic since no adequate
data
exist.
For
instance, it has always been held that bail is easier to get in Victoria
than
New South
Wales.
What
statistical data exist seem to support this view. Crime rates are
generally increasing so the number of persons appearing before
the
courts on
criminal charges has increased, exacerbated by increasing pressure from the civil
court.
The
problem is emphasised by
the
recent applications by individuals awaiting
trial, for consideration to be given to the effect on them or of
the
long delay between
committal and trial.
The
police have perhaps been most successful in obtaining resources to
meet
the
pressure. However, the strain is
apparent
in the strong demands for public
accountability
and
efficiency. In some States, such demands for improved
management
are
almost overwhelmed by the effect of public inquiries into
corruption.
The
thrust to community policing demonstrates
the
efforts being made
to draw in public co-operation in a time of expanding crime rates. Similarly,
increasing educational requirements and consequent professionalisation are
upending traditional approaches to policing.
In addition to
the
problems created by increasing numbers in
the
police and court
systems,
the
end
result must be an increase in prison population.
The
pressure on
the gaols is enormous and difficult to rectify in the short
term
because of
the
cost
and time involved in building new institutions. It can only partly be relieved by
non-custodial alternatives, although
there
is no
doubt
that
there
will be much
greater experimentation with these in
the
near
future.
The
same public pressure for longer sentences is also directed at the gaols for
tougher conditions
and
supervision. Programmes designed to ease prisoners into
the community often suffer.
The
problems of housing in old gaols,
the
large
percentage of high security cells combined with new difficulties, such as
the
problems associated with drugs and
AIDS
in prisons, leads to
the
prison's portfolio
being unenviable for politicians and a heavy burden for administrators.
Under
these
conditions it is
not
surprising
that
there
are many difficulties in developing an
appropriate educational programme for prison officers.
The
job
itself needs
restructuring, possibly with development towards unit management
and
other
types
of institutionallayout where security is varied within the gaol and between segments
of
the
gaol.
What, perhaps, is most surprising is
that
despite all these difficulties
the
movement towards co-ordinated planning is so slow. Obstacles include territoriality
To continue reading
Request your trial