ABC News: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 18:06 AEDT LOCAL NEWS : Northern Territory No more changes for mandatory sentencing system: Burke The Attorney-General, Denis Burke, says there will be no further changes to the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing regime. The North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (NAALAS) says amendments that allow magistrates to consider exceptional circumstances in sentencing, have failed to reduce the imprisonment rate. NAALAS has also produced a report which shows almost 80 per cent of offenders receiving mandatory sentences are Aboriginal. Mr Burke says the rate is high and disturbing, but on a per capita basis, the imprisonment rate is lower than in some other jurisdictions. "Certainly the nexis between mandatory sentencing and high Aboriginal incarceration is something that NAALAS will never see eye-to-eye with government," he said. "But we have a very firm policy, we're committed to mandatory sentencing, we believe that the exceptional circumstances provisions provide adequate opportunity for those who are first- time offenders to escape the regime." © 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
