In 1985,the incarceration rate in Australia was 96 prisoners per 100,000 adults. In 2022,the incarceration rate is 202 prisoners per 100,000 adults.
Rather than the crime rate,Leigh will say the “issue has instead been with how we have chosen to handle complex social challenges”.
“Stricter policing,tougher sentencing and more stringent bail laws appear to be the main drivers behind Australia’s growing prison population,” Leigh will say. “There are good ethical reasons for reducing the rate of incarceration in Australia. But there are good fiscal reasons too.”
In 2020 research,Leigh – a former economics professor – estimated recurrent spending on prisons totalled $4.7 billion annually,or $240 for every Australian adult. He will say in his speech if the incarceration rate remained at its 1985 level,Australia would save $2.6 billion annually.
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University of South Australia emeritus professor of law and criminal justice Rick Sarre said Leigh was smart to frame the argument as an economic one,adding there were “thousands of things you could do” with the money states poured into incarceration.
“If you pump[the funds] into welfare services,child protection,Indigenous mentoring,mental health support,supplementing income for families in crisis,then you’re going to get far better bang for your buck than waiting for people to screw up and putting them behind bars,which is probably the most inefficient way of stopping crime,” Sarre said.