06/04/2026
Prisons are for Punishment- does this work?
5 April 2026
Prisons are for punishment, so the people most disadvantaged have further pain inflicted on them.
The criminal justice system seems to have only one solution- prison. The only question for the judges is ‘How Long?’ This seems like having a carpenter whose only tool is a hammer, or a doctor who only has one drug. Yet no one even comments on its absurdity.
This is particularly foolish for kids, as they are going to live for many years and eventually they will come out, and if they remain unable to integrate with normal society they will almost certainly re-offend. At Point Puer, which was the children’s section of Port Arthur Prison Colony in Tasmania in 1857, the object was to get the kids back as normal members of society. We seem to have gone backwards in the last 168 years.
Children don’t have computer tablets in their cells, which would allow them access to families or education, which surely would improve their chances of rehabilitation. It costs $1.17million per child per year. You must wonder where the money goes.
Here is a video compiled after the recent NSW Parliamentary Budget Estimates Hearing, as the Minister gives his lame reasons for continuing lack of progress:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_RAhAQIa0wztBnfrrdI09huGe2JQLZQJ/view