ACTCOSS 2020 ACT Election issue brief
For a just and fair Canberra, the next ACT Government must:
- Raise the Minimum age of Criminal Responsibility from 10 to at least 14 years of age
- Improve access to justice by increasing funding to community legal centres, mediation and individual advocacy supports
- Resource the Disability Justice Strategy
- Resource the Justice Reinvestment Strategy: meet recidivism targets, significantly reduce Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander incarceration, and introduce gender-specific rehabilitation and diversion programs
- Fix the prison: Focus the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) on rehabilitation
- Implement and fund all ACT Inspector of Correctional Services Healthy Prison Review recommendations
- Address remand policies at the AMC: separate people on remand, including women’s section
- Implement a needle and syringe program for the AMC
- Ensure equal access to gender-specific accommodation, services and support for women in the AMC
- Expand specialist drug and alcohol programs and fix legislative barriers to enable the diversion of Canberrans away from the justice system and towards support
- Amend the Crimes Act 1900 (ACT) to include the concept of positive consent as recommended by the Inquiry into Crimes (Consent) Amendment Bill.
Read the full issue brief below for more details, or read other issue briefs on our ACT Election page.