TY - JOUR
T1 - Building community confidence in community corrections
AU - Bartels, Lorana
AU - Weatherburn, Don
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Sydney Institute of Criminology.
PY - 2020/7/2
Y1 - 2020/7/2
N2 - It is inevitable that some people granted conditional release will (re)offend, but most will complete their order without incident. Nevertheless, the standard approach adopted by correctional agencies to communicating with the public about community corrections is one of minimal information. We suggest that this may create an impression that offenders are dark shadowy figures incapable of change or redemption. To address this, we set out an agenda for Australian governments to build public confidence in community corrections. We call for more robust program evaluation, publication of the results and regular updates on trends in successful order completion. We also highlight the importance of educating the public about crime and corrections and the need to improve the credibility of community corrections. Finally, governments should do more to humanise offenders. The public has a right to know more about how offenders are managed in the community. They also deserve to hear the stories behind the statistics.
AB - It is inevitable that some people granted conditional release will (re)offend, but most will complete their order without incident. Nevertheless, the standard approach adopted by correctional agencies to communicating with the public about community corrections is one of minimal information. We suggest that this may create an impression that offenders are dark shadowy figures incapable of change or redemption. To address this, we set out an agenda for Australian governments to build public confidence in community corrections. We call for more robust program evaluation, publication of the results and regular updates on trends in successful order completion. We also highlight the importance of educating the public about crime and corrections and the need to improve the credibility of community corrections. Finally, governments should do more to humanise offenders. The public has a right to know more about how offenders are managed in the community. They also deserve to hear the stories behind the statistics.
KW - Australia
KW - community corrections
KW - corrections agencies
KW - public confidence
KW - public opinion
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089511274&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10345329.2020.1801150
DO - 10.1080/10345329.2020.1801150
M3 - Article
SN - 1034-5329
VL - 32
SP - 292
EP - 308
JO - Current Issues in Criminal Justice
JF - Current Issues in Criminal Justice
IS - 3
ER -