Having lived for many years in the Northern Territory I have been concerned with the dramatically high crime rate and intrigued by the incarceration statistics in the Northern Territory. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics: 'The Territory's prison population has grown steadily over the last 20 years ... The Northern Territory has by far the highest incarceration rate in the country, at more than four times the national average and increasing faster than any other jurisdiction'. The rate of imprisonment in 2012 increased 1 per cent over the 2011 figure.
In other words we have a flood, and it's rising!
The year 11 legal studies text book I used to teach from suggested there are two principal functions of sentencing in the criminal court: to punish the offender, and to deter both the individual and the general public from similar acts in the future. That is, to make for a safer society.
The Northern Territory Government has legislated to direct magistrates and judges in sentencing to enforce harsher penalties to ensure that the message gets out to would be offenders that if they offend they will get the full treatment. They will go to jail and for a lengthy period. So why is the situation deteriorating?
The Law Society of the NT suggests a number of reasons, including:
erosion of judicial discretion and growth of mandatory minimum sentences; failure to offer effective rehabilitation; failure to establish alternatives to incarceration; increasing number of offences; increasing police numbers; demographic change: the Northern Territory has the youngest population of any Australian jurisdiction, with an ever-increasing cohort of people becoming old enough to commit offences; criminogenic conditions: a substantial portion of the Northern Territory population live in remote communities and town camps in a state of chronic poverty, with poor housing, health, employment and education.
The very nature of Northern Territory society — widely dispersed, with small populations living in tiny communities far from a range of essential services; experiencing a severe lack of employment and educational opportunity; and living in poorly constructed and inadequately maintained housing — has produced a marginalised population with little else to do but break the law. These are the forces pushing Aboriginal young men into incarceration.
The case of Liam Jurrah, celebrated AFL footballer, is instructive. At age 23 Jurrah had established a promising career. But in March 2012 he was charged with attempted murder in Alice Springs. After being acquitted of that crime he was