A surge in grownup and youth prisoners is costing Queensland taxpayers a historic quantity, prompting claims from reform teams that the system is failing.
The surge has seen the state spend greater than $1.1 billion in constructing and operational prices to dwelling the extra offenders, a brand new report by the Justice Reform Initiative discovered.
There are 9500 grownup prisoners at present in Queensland jails, which is a 64 per cent enhance over the past decade.
It prices taxpayers about $88,000 a yr to accommodate them, the report discovered.
Youth offenders have elevated by 40 per cent within the final two years, with 270 in custody, costing taxpayers $760,000 per little one yearly.
The statistics counsel that Queensland has the worst youth incarceration fee within the nation.
The enhance in youth offenders has value the state authorities a further $218 million, in accordance with the Justice Reform Initiative.
The “alarming” surge in prisoners and the quantity it’s costing taxpayers has left jail reform activists questioning whether or not the justice system is working.
“Close to two-thirds of adults in prison have been there before. We know that people are cycling in and out of custody,” Mindy Sotiri from the Justice Reform Initiative stated.
“If we’re not doing something that works, we’re not helping the victims and that means evidence-based solutions, preventing this from happening again.”
Reform activists say the cash might be used to assist rehabilitate prisoners, which might decrease the reoffending fee, lowering the long-term value on taxpayers.
“They [jails] are not funded in the ways that are required to actually reduce our reliance on incarceration,” Youth Advocacy Centre spokesperson Katherine Hayes stated.
“Prison is what you would call criminogenic. That is, the more contact that you have with prison, the more likely you are to re-offend.”
Source: www.9news.com.au
