Turned inside outBy YULIA ONSMANAnother Saturday, another rally on Parliament House steps in Hobart. I've been to more rallies there than I care to remember - had the privilegeof speaking at a few too. Mostly I go and wave my placard and march if that's part of the game plan. Some issues I'm passionate about, others I go to because I know the cause is just and right and I want to support those whoare fighting for it. I know most of the people who organise them too - by sight if notpersonally - this being Hobart it's a relatively small group who always seemto be at the heart of these things. And the issues we rally for are important, truly important, saving theforests, peace, education, women's rights, freeing the refugees. Some rallies are bigger than others, the rally to save the forests wasattended by thousands, 10 - 15 thousand depending on whom you listen too.The No War one was huge too. I went to another one this Saturday. I'd been invited to speak and I wasglad to. I admire and respect the people who organised the rally more thanmost. They work selflessly and tirelessly in the face of harsh and unjusttreatment from a seemingly callous and uncaring government. For some theissue is a daily painful reminder of their own personal tragedy - a reminderof just how much they have lost and will never ever get back, even if theymanage to change things in the future for others. The rally was to protest the cutting of the InsideOut program at Risdonprison and to lobby for better support services for inmates, and bettertreatment for the far too many young people who pass through our judicialsystem, who for the most part are there for relatively minor offences. Attendance at the rally numbered less than one hundred. Seemingly, lessthan one hundred people cared enough about the fate of our young people inprison to come out in the coldish winter sunshine for an hour or so. Why do people come out in their thousands to demonstrate concern forforests, Iraq, and two Australians wrongly imprisoned and mistreated by theUSA, yet not for young people caught, trapped in and destroyed by a prisonsystem that does more harm than good? The only media to attend and listen to the gut-wrenching, heartbreakingspeech from Prison Action Reform Group Spokesperson Vickie Douglas as sheread out her son's suicide note, written just before he took his own lifewhile locked up in a prison cell, was the ABC. The small piece buried inthe back of the Sunday Tasmanian simply quoted directly from the politicalmedia releases - because who ever wrote it wasn't there to hear God SquadLeader, John Smith, make a passionate plea on behalf of society's forgottenyoung ones. I'm mother to three young adults - I'm disturbingly aware that while theyare safe and happy now, it could so easily be one of them that takes a wrongturn at any time, it's a fine fine line and no family is immune. The ideathat young people who commit crimes for whatever reason only come from badfamilies, is what keeps most of us cocooned in that safe spot that tells us,this will not happen to my children - this won't affect my family. The idea that my child is a good well brought up person and this sort ofstuff - drugs, speeding, theft - only concerns 'that type' of young personis stupidly wrong. It can happen to your child, my child, any young person.One minute safe and happy the next - lives shattered, sometimes others aswell as their own and their families. It is understandable that young offenders who are convicted of crimes suchas murder, manslaughter, rape or serious assaults are imprisoned because thecommunity must be protected, but sending them to prison for propertyoffences, drug offences or motor vehicle offences is inappropriate. We have far too many young people locked up within a substandard prisonsystem on short-term sentences for relatively minor crimes. Prison should always be a last resort for any offender but in the case ofyoung people we must legislate to prevent courts from imprisoning offenderswhose crimes are not in that 'extremely serious' category. The overwhelming evidence worldwide is that young offenders are at graverisk of being sexually and physically abused in prison and suffer appallingmental harm as a result of being incarcerated. Society is not best served by young offenders being brutalised in prison -not only is it a breach of the offenders' human rights, but it simply meanswhen that young offender is released into the community they are invariablymentally and emotionally scarred from the experience and in many cases morelikely to re-offend. Community based sentencing alternatives involving counselling, communitywork, and rehabilitation are much more effective for young offenders thanimprisonment. Of course it will mean a substantial funding increase to the CommunityCorrections Service and extra suitably trained staff to ensure offenders areproperly screened and assessed. And not everyone is suitable for community work orders and it will benecessary to ensure there are quality intensive rehabilitation and supportprograms available to those with longer sentences housed within the prison -an immediate restart of the Inside Out program with increased funding andresources would be a good start. Yulia Onsman is the Australian DemocratsSenate candidate for Tasmania RAPID RESPONSE EMAIL: What do you think? Friday, August 19, 2004 |