There is a excellent report on mandatory sentencing and zero tolerance policing (which mandatory sentencing is part of) on the ATSIC web site. http://www.atsic.gov.au - look in the Issues section for zero tolerance report. It was written by the Sydney Institute of Criminology and goes in depth into what zero tolerance policing is and what effects it has on Indigenous people. A quick explanation of mandatory sentencing... Mandatory sentencing is part of what is called zero tolerance policing and is primarily aimed at "cleaning" up minor property crime and public place offences such as public drunkness. The main aim of zero tolerance is to ensure public "quality of life". The quality of life ideal and public crimes, however, is very narrowly defined. Corporate crime (also public crimes)are excluded, as is other crimes like domestic violence because they occur in the private sphere. For example in Australia, offences which draw mandatory sentencing include minor property offences such as stealing biscuits, but do not include embezzlement from your employer (according to statistics a primarily white crime), it includes stealing a car, but not shop lifting (also because according to statistics shoplifting is committed primarily by white middle class people). Mandatory sentencing and zero tolerance also assume that the law is neutral, however,mandatory sentencing and zero tolerance are discriminatory because the type of offences they target are ones which a large number of are committed by people who are already very poor and are locked into the poverty cycle. And unfortunately the reality is that it is usually minority groups such as Indigenous people who make up the vast majority of people concentrated into these poorer groups. The crimes targeted are ones that already have a disproportionate number of Indigenous people jailed for. By jailing these people for minor offences it just serves to increase their marginalisation, both economically and socially. Mandatory sentencing and zero tolerance do nothing to redress the social problems of poverty, they just exacebate them. In the Northern Territory, you can be jailed as an adult at the age of 17 years. The first offence draws a 14 day sentence, the second � a 3 month and the 3rd offence � one year. Approximately $150,000 or more is spent a year to house one inmate (even if your crime was only stealing $20 worth of biscuits and cordial). In America, this has given rise to what is known as the Prison Industrial Complex. That is big money/profits are being made from building more prisons and jailing people. For this industry to be profitable, it of course means more and more people need to be jailed and under mandatory sentencing. More and more people being jailed does little to stem crime (similar results can be achieved by community policing policies, which are far less harsh and work with minority groups to ensure much more positive and permanent outcome.), instead it serves to bolster the profits of a new industry. America now has the largest prison population in the world � 2million people. Mandatory sentencing and zero tolerance policing breach at least five international conventions: The international convention on civil and political rights The international convention on economic, social and cultural rights The convention on the rights of the child The convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination The standard minimum rules for the administration of juvenile justice. It also goes against all the recommendations of the Royal Commission Report on Aboriginal deaths in custody. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
