Researchers from the Australian National University, Dr Jill Guthrie and Professor Michael Levy, who worked with Cowra people from 2013 to 2016 on the Cowra Justice Reinvestment (JR) Research project, recently gave evidence at the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Young People in the Northern Territory.
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The Cowra JR research project from 2013 to 2016, funded by the Australian Research Council, explored the potential of JR with the Cowra community.
The Royal Commission held a JR Panel on Wednesday, June 28 in Darwin.
Professor Levy and Dr Guthrie were invited to participate on the panel along with Mr Alistair Ferguson from the Marunguka Justice Reinvestment project in Bourke.
Justice Reinvestment is an approach to addressing crime which emphases concentrating health and social welfare services in areas with high populations of offenders.
Within a JR approach, taxpayer money is not spent imprisoning people for low-level activity: instead, that money is reinvested into the community where those people live.
‘Being invited to the Royal Commission provided a great opportunity for us to share some of the findings from the Cowra JR research project,” Dr Guthrie said.
‘We were invited to share with the Commissioners how the Cowra JR research project engaged with the whole community, and how we explored the issues for its young people as a whole of community approach. The Commissioners were particularly interested how a wide range of Cowra services, including education, health, community services, the judiciary, the police, the Cowra Shire Council, and importantly, the Cowra Indigenous Community got on board.”
‘The Commissioners were also interested in finding out how JR might be applied in other jurisdictions, including in the Northern Territory,” Professor Levy said.
‘It is a credit to the people of Cowra that their willingness to engage in and embrace Justice Reinvestment can become a catalyst for change, and not only for one community. It may be that the Commissioners will be able to draw on the work that was done in Cowra to recommend for alternatives to the current situation for young people in the Northern Territory.”
The Commissioners were also impressed with how the community was kept informed of developments in the research by the Cowra Guardian. They understood the key role that the media takes in the JR process,” Dr Guthrie added.
The Royal Commission is examining how children are treated in detention centres in the Northern Territory.
It is also looking into the child protection system in the Northern Territory.
More information including transcripts of Professor Levy’s, Mr Ferguson’s and Dr Guthrie’s evidence can be found at the Royal Commission website: https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/NT-public-hearings/Documents/transcripts-2017/Transcript-28-June-2017.pdf
