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Dec 31, 1000
Medieval practices
Executions by burning, beheading and hanging were commonly used and were public events which offered entertainment to the crowd.
(Retribution): earliest rationale and criminal code. Aimed to restore ‘fairness’ to society- if you did something wrong the community would seek revenge in order to restore balance. -
Period: to
1788 - 1868
Approximately 163,000 had been transported to Australia from the UK- approximately 138,000 men and 25,000 women (Smith 2010- website). Most convicts sent to Australia were sentenced to 7 year, 14 year or life sentences of hard labour. Sentences were usually only for minor offences such as property offences or petty theft. -
Exile and Banishment
“Forms of punishment whereby offenders were transported to distant lands, often to work at hard labor, usually with no hope of return” our textbook pg 50.
(Incapacitation): This is how Australia began. Criminals from the UK were sent to Australia as convicts, banished from returning to the UK. Aboard the first fleet were 504 male convicts and 192 female convicts. -
Incapacitation
The first jails in NSW were made, constructed from logs. The jails were located in Sydney and Parramatta and were completed in June of that year. Capacity of both jails were 22 cells in each. Both jails were burnt down the same year by arsonists and were never identified. The jails were replaced by sandstone buildings.
(O’Toole 2006- website). -
1830 - Capital Punishment
Capital punishment in the form of public execution were used for some NSW inmates. Public executions were spectacles for the community to watch. -
Melbourne's first jail
The first jail in Melbourne is built -
The 'Assignment' Policy
The ‘Assignment’ policy, where convicts were allocated to private colonisers for no of minimum pay, ended. -
Classifications
Inmates begun to be classified under the British Crofton system whereby they were given a legal character that represented the offences and sentences they had been given (A, B and C). The A classification was for serious crimes and dangerous inmates. The C classification was given to those who had committed minor crimes or misdemeanours or individuals who were considered easy to control. The B classification was given to inmates who fell in between the two other classifications.
(incapacitatio -
Writing materials
Inmates who were serving 2 years or more were allowed writing materials (ABC, Four Corners) -
Probation services
Probation services in NSW started -
Ronald Ryan
Ronald Ryan was the last person to be hanged in Victoria. Prior to this execution, QLD and NSW had already abolished the death penalty for the crime of murder. -
Women Behind Bars Group
Michelle House, a pregnant woman prisoner, was allegedly kneed in the stomach by a prison officer at Sydney’s Mulawa women’s prison. As a result, The Women Behind Bars group was formed with a focus on issues facing female inmates while incarcerated. -
Capital punishment abolished
Capital punishment abolished (Retribution). The last person sentenced to death was Brenda Hodge, in 1984 but her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. This year, capital punishment was abolished for murder for all states when WA abolished the punishment. -
Deaths in custody
The Australian Institute of Criminology reports a 40% increase in deaths in custody over the past two years. In all, 72 people died in custody in 1992/93 compared with 57 and 58 in the two previous years. (ABC, Four Corners) -
Mandatory sentencing
Mandatory sentencing was introduced in the Northern Territory (deterrence). This was controversial as it was thought by some to be a racist policy due to the ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy which significantly increased the number or Indigenous offenders being incarcerated. To this day, Indigenous Australians are overrepresented in the Justice System.
Life imprisonment is mandatory for murder in QLD, SA and NT and mandatory in the other states for aircraft hijacking -
Audit
The first audit of rehabilitation programs offered to adult offenders in public prisons was complete (rehabilitation). -
Conflicts for today
How do we address the causes of crime whilst administering punishment? Our systems goals? All four? The system does seek retribution by punishing those that break the law in order to restore balance. Mandatory sentences are used to deter others from doing the same. Offenders are often imprisoned but goals of rehabilitation are attempted to be met whilst incarcerated.
