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...
Serco Wants to Run Public Housing in Australia
Large outsourcing companies are increasingly being given control of essential services in Australia, as our federal and state governments follow global privatisation trends. Serco is a British company that’s been making inroads into the Australian public services sector since the 1990s. Contracted...
When “Just Following the Rules” Becomes a Crime
The world watched in horror as footage of Dr David Dao being dragged off a United Airlines flight by Chicago Aviation security officers went viral earlier this month. Airline officials said employees were just following “established procedures,” but to many the...
A World Without Bars: the Prison Abolition Movement
The transatlantic slave trade existed for well over three hundred years, with European nations abducting millions of people from Africa and taking them to colonies in the Americas to be sold into involuntary servitude. Indeed, the wealth of the United States...
Recreational Cannabis: Regulate and Reap the Benefits
One in five US citizens now lives in a state where the use of recreational marijuana is permitted. On November 8 last year, another four US states voted in favour of marijuana legalisation, bringing the total number of states to eight, as...
Replacing Prison Bars with GPS Tracking Devices: An Interview with Professor Mirko Bagaric
Date of publication: 27 April 2017 The Australian prison system is failing, as incarceration rates are at an all-time high. As of June last year, there were 38,845 adult prisoners in corrective services custody, making the national imprisonment rate grow to 208...
Top DNA Analyst Sacked for Allegedly Fabricating Records
DNA evidence has become an increasingly important component of criminal investigations and prosecutions since its use became widespread in the 1990s. Today, police around the country can access the National Criminal Investigation DNA database, which contains the DNA profiles of hundreds of...
Casual Conversations Do Not Amount to Consorting
Since their enactment in 2012, the use of consorting laws by NSW police has come under significant scrutiny. The consorting law legislation was introduced into parliament by the O’Farrell government, ostensibly in response to rising gun violence attributed to motorcycle club members and organised...
