RACGP backs Justice Reform Initiative

The RACGP has become a supporter organisation of the Justice Reform Initiative, an organisation based around the idea that ‘jailing is failing’.
 
The initiative is working to urgently reduce the number of people in Australian prisons, saying their ‘over-use’ is harmful and they are ineffective at reducing crime and addressing the drivers of involvement in the criminal justice system.
 
With 20 February marking World Day of Social Justice, RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said the Justice Reform Initiative is helping to recognise that ‘incarceration is a last resort’, and that GPs can play a key role in achieving this.
 
‘Providing appropriate healthcare and support in dealing with the social determinants of health will improve the health of our community, but also will reduce incarceration rates,’ he told newsGP.
 
The RACGP has long been advocating for a whole system approach across several different policy areas, prioritising the health and wellbeing needs of children and their families.
 
This includes trauma-informed support for children who may have experienced multiple adverse events and are at risk of contact with the justice system, raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 and improved services for children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
 
‘We also know that incarceration rates are much higher on average for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and we’re really trying to highlight the importance of providing early support with education and reform rather than jail,’ Dr Wright said.
 
Justice Reform Initiative Chair Robert Tickner, who served as Federal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Minister from 1990–96, founded the group after seeing a ‘pressing need’ for a national voice for change to the justice system.
 
‘I started to just reach out to people who I thought might be interested,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘I’ve brought together people from across the political spectrum … from all over the country who put aside politics or any other differences that might exist to bring together this powerful voice for turning around Australia’s justice system.
 
‘We have to turn away from the American model of building more and more prisons, and more and more youth detention centres, and instead to address the underlying issues, or the social determinants, which bring so many people into contact with a criminal justice system.’
 
Mr Tickner welcomed the RACGP’s decision to support the Initiative, knowing firsthand the lifechanging impact of having a supportive GP.
 
‘I was a country kid, I grew up in Forster up the north coast, and my GP is no longer alive, but he, Dr Gordon Sanders, was the epitome of what I regard to be a legendary local GP and continued practising into his 80s,’ he said.
 
‘I see GPs as frontline people with enormous life experience and a really stark understanding of the failure of the existing system for so many people who fall through the cracks.
 
‘We hope that one of the first things that GPs will do is look to our website and see the very rich resource materials that are there around these issues.’
 
Dr Wright, who is also a patron of the Justice Reform Initiative, agreed that GPs play a crucial role in supporting people at risk of contact with the justice system 
 
‘As GPs, we see social issues in our consultations, we see family dynamics, we work with many people with alcohol and other substance disorders, we very frequently see domestic and family violence,’ he said.
 
‘So, making sure GPs are alert to these issues beyond disease-related healthcare is really important because it helps keep communities safer, healthier, and happier.
 
‘The knowledge that GPs have in linking people with community services at an early stage go a long way in keeping them well, keeping people out if hospitals, and hopefully people out of jail.’
 
Last year, the national average daily prison population reached an eight-year high of 45,525 people.
 
The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people incarcerated also rose by 11.7% in the last year alone.
 
It comes as the Federal Government continues to miss key Closing the Gap targets, with a goal of reducing the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults held in incarceration by at least 15% by 2031 currently not on track to be completed.

The RACGP says early intervention, trauma-informed healthcare, and community-led support are proven to reduce offending and improve long-term health and wellbeing outcomes.  
 
Log in below to join the organisation.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health custodial health prison healthcare prison standards young people