What is Justice Reinvestment?

Justice Reinvestment (JR) is a strategy for reducing the number of people in prison by investing funds drawn from the corrections budget into communities that produce large numbers of prisoners. The term was coined in 2003 in the USA with the idea of redirecting a portion of the tens of billions of dollars America spends on prisons into addressing underlying causes of crime in high-incarceration neighbourhoods. The originators of JR advocated ‘taking a geographic approach to public safety that targets money for programs in education, health, job creation, and job training in low-income communities’, and rebuilding human resources and physical infrastructure —schools, healthcare facilities, parks, and public spaces (Tucker & Cadora 2003: 2). In order to do this, accountability and funds were to be devolved to local authorities, to seek community level solutions to community level problems.

Where is Justice Reinvestment Happening in Australia?

 

Communities

In New South Wales:

Bourke NSW

Cowra NSW

In Queensland:

Cherbourg

Doomadgee & Mornington Island

In Northern Territory:

Katherine

In South Australia:

Port Adelaide

In Western Australia:

Halls Creek

Governments Actively Involved in Justice Reinvestment

• ACT
• South Australia
• Queensland
• New South Wales

Organisations Actively Involved in JR

• Change the Record
• Just Reinvest NSW
• Australian Red Cross
• Justice Reinvestment SA (JRSA)
• YouthLaw Vic
• Australian Justice Reinvestment Project, Law Faculty, UNSW
• Social Reinvestment Western Australia
• Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney
• The Cairns Institute, James Cook University

Organisations with an Interest In and Supporting JR

• Amnesty International Australia
• National Congress of Australia’s First People