Mark Mitchell: Police Minister explains why he wants longer sentences to reduce recidivism

The Police Minister has expressed interest in locking up criminals for longer in a bid to cut down on reoffending.

Criminals that serve five years or more in jail are generally less likely to reoffend, according to new reports.

Mark Mitchell says he's asked Corrections to examine whether shorter sentences can be extended.

"Longer sentences normally mean the people commit to their rehabilitation better, engage in more rehabilitation, and are therefore less risk to the community when they come out." 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Corrections Minister wants to lock crooks up for longer.
Criminals that serve five years or more in jail are
generally less likely to offend, according to the stats, So
the Minister, Mark Mitchell has asked Corrections to look at
whether those shorter sentences could be extended. It is with
us now how much? Hey here?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Then? How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I'm well, thanks mate? How would you do it?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
That's good? Well, I don't know. That's why. That's exactly
why I've asked Corrections to go away and have a
look at it. But yes, you are right. Is that
when you look at it, longer sentences mean that normally
the people commit to their rehabilitation, better engage in more
rehabilitation and are therefore less risks to the community when

(00:37):
they come out.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
I mean, you'd have to do it at the sentencing part,
wouldn't you.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, I'm looking at it purely from the correction side
of it, because obviously we deliver rehabilitation now. So there's
a couple of things that we did when we came
into government. We made sure that prisoners on remand who
don't get access to rehabilitation can get access to rehabilitation.
Now we change the law around that. You know, we're
constantly looking at the programs that do work that don't work,

(01:04):
giving people realize skills, genuine realized skills that actually will
help them when they do come out of prison. But
a part of that work too is just seeing, you know,
how effective short sentences are and what the options are
for us in side corrections.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
But what okay, so what say does corrections have over
how long a prisoner spends in prison?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, Corrections doesn't have any say on that because other
than the fact they can provide advice and reports to
the parole board, et cetera. So this is basically.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Why are you asking corrections to look at it if
they have no say on how long these people.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Are Well, because because we deliver rehabilitation. So even if
we do go through it and identify, yes, that short
sentences are not very effective, maybe we can figure out
ways of delivering rehabilitation. I just alluded to the fact
that we've just changed the law before romand prisoners were
getting no programs at all while they're in prison. And
bearing in mind that up to fifty percent of population

(02:00):
at any given time is on remand either remand accused
or remand convicted. So we're already making changes around that.
It's just a broader piece of work that I've asked
Corrections to do to identify what what the real issues
are around small shorter sentences sentences.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
So has the herod cited match when it says the
minister's looking at this and he wants to swap the
short sentences for long sentences, That's not really what you're
planning to do. You're just trying to figure out how
to get the short sentence people not correct reoffend.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yes, yes, correct, Well, you don't have a broader look
at it. And if and if it's really clear that
actually short shorter sentence are shorter sentences aren't effective, in
fact they counterintuitive, then at least we've armed with that
information as a government and informs us to make decisions.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, I see. Hey, have you been sending yourself emails
from your work account to your Gmail account?

Speaker 2 (02:49):
No? I haven't.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Okay, good good. You're obviously smarter than Erica.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Have you.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Have you asked Erika about what's going on with her
printer here?

Speaker 2 (02:57):
No, I've got no idea. All I know is that
you had a bit of a disaster just coming on
here that one of your braces broke, but I have
to say they were.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
I can't avoid the German untrusted.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
But you sound fined, You sound fine.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
I appreciate it. Look terrible though. Mark Mitchell corrections, go
to see it just looks. Look just so that you're
in on this now, because now he's let the cat
out of the bag. What happened is when I was
twenty one, I had braces, right, don't judge me for it.
I was a nerd. So anyway, after that, they put
a wire behind your teeth, which I'm telling you this
for the benefit of Joe SPERGANI, who didn't know that
that happens after you have braces. Then what happened was here,

(03:36):
I am, at the age of forty, eating an apple
and the wire behind my tooth broke. And what do
we know about reading the Bible? Women should not eat apples.
The last one who ate an apple basically destroyed womenkind
and I destroyed my wire. For more from Heather Duplessy
Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be from
four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.