Silk Road Creator’s Life Sentence Fails to Deter Online Drug Transactions
Ross Ulbricht, founder of the online drug marketplace Silk Road, had his life sentence confirmed by a US Federal appeals court on May 31. Mr Ulbricht, known online as Dread Pirate Roberts, created the site in 2011. In its heyday, Silk Road...
From the Prison Cell to the Street and Back Again
Imprisonment rates in Australia are at an all-time high. At the end of March this year, there were 12,955 adult inmates in NSW correctional facilities, according to NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures. The overwhelming majority of these prisoners are...
Drug Driving Charges Are On the Rise
Back in December 2015, the NSW government announced it was tripling the amount of roadside drug testing police were carrying out annually to 97,000 tests by 2017. And not surprisingly, the amount of people being charged with drug driving has more than tripled....
Stop Animal Cruelty: An Interview with Anonymous for the Voiceless’ Matt Stellino
A group of black clad, Guy Fawkes mask wearing individuals were standing at the centre of the bustling crowd in Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall last Saturday holding laptops and flatscreens, displaying graphic footage of animals being treated with horrific brutality. The...
The Push for a NSW Bill of Rights
In a forward to the federal government’s Multicultural Statement released on March 20 this year, prime minister Malcolm Turnbull remarked that Australia is defined by the “shared values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and equality of opportunity - a...
NSW Courts Refuse to Convict Homeless Man
In February 2012, Mr Lanz Priestley was charged with two offences for “staying overnight” in Sydney’s Martin Place on two consecutive evenings. The City of Sydney council had erected notices in the public mall prohibiting “camping or staying overnight” in the...
Treaty Now! Uluru Summit Rejects Constitutional Recognition
Last week’s Uluru summit was the culmination of a six-month process that saw the Referendum Council travel the country carrying out the dialogues. These were a series of twelve meetings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to discuss the issue...
Supporting Criminalised Women: An Interview with Flat Out’s Jake Argyll
The Australian prison population is at an all-time high. At the end of June last year, there were 38,845 adult prisoners in Australian correctional facilities. Women accounted for 3,094 of them, which is 8 percent of the overall adult prison population. But...
Reducing Indigenous Youth Incarceration: An Interview with Just Reinvest’s Sarah Hopkins
There’s a glaring overrepresentation of young Indigenous people in the NSW prison system. While Aboriginal young people make up around 3 percent of the general population, they account for 51 percent of youths being held in juvenile detention. At the...
It’s Time for an Australian Bill of Rights
After the second world war, a series of international treaties began being introduced via the United Nations in order to define and protect people’s “inalienable human rights.” Australia has ratified the seven core international human rights conventions. This means that at the international...
