The Australian Prison Boom and the Need for Decarceration
The imprisonment rate in Australia has been on the rise since the 1970s. At present, it’s at an all-time high. As of June last year, there were 38,845 adult prisoners in Australian correctional facilities, which was an 8 percent increase on the year...
‘High Alert’ Campaign Warns Drug Users of Police Operations
Under Operation Safenight, Victoria police are carrying out nightclub raids and searches targeting people who use drugs throughout Melbourne. The operation commenced on April 23, and searches have been undertaken in the city’s nightclub precincts on two out of the...
Rehab and Harm Reduction: An Interview with WHOS director Garth Popple
The subject of drug rehabilitation formed part of the national discussion recently, after Australian Story aired the Breaking Good documentary. It told the story of Peter Lyndon-James, a former ice user, who now runs the “nation’s strictest” rehab clinic. Shalom...
The Implicit Racism in the War on Drugs
Drug prohibition has been a global phenomenon for nearly a hundred years now. The 1925 Geneva Convention imposed international restrictions on the production and use of opium, coca and, as a late addition, cannabis. However, the war on drugs was declared...
Crime and Incarceration: An interview with BOCSAR director Dr Don Weatherburn
NSW crime rates are at their lowest in over forty years, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) figures revealed last month. Crime across most of NSW was found to have either declined or remained stable in most major...
Higher National Wealth Does Not Mean Better Living or Lower Crime
Last year was the hottest year on record, and scientists are putting that down to human-caused climate change. The World Meteorological Organisation has announced that as we move towards the middle of 2017, the continuing record-breaking heat is leading us into “uncharted territory.”...
Man Set to Die in Prison for Traffic Offences
Marshall Wallace is an Aboriginal man from a remote outstation in the Northern Territory, who recently moved to Mount Isa with his wife, so he could undergo chemotherapy. Two weeks ago, he was pulled over by police and found to...
The Political Sacrifice of Schapelle Corby
Schapelle Corby’s parole period is coming to an end. After spending almost a decade behind bars in Indonesia on a conviction of trafficking cannabis - a drug that is now legal in eight US states - Ms Corby will finally be allowed...
We’re Importing Medical Marijuana, While Police Are Raiding Local Producers
The first two commercial batches of legal medicinal cannabis products were imported into Australia earlier this week. The medicines were produced in Canada and are being held by Health House International in WA and the Pharmaceutical Packaging Professionals in Victoria. The imports...
Imprisonment Does Not Reduce Crime: An Interview with UNSW Professor Eileen Baldry
NSW is about to reach its highest incarceration rate for the past century. This week, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) released the state’s latest custody statistics, which show that at the end of March the adult...
