forensic disability Archives - Queensland Advocacy Incorporated

Graph showing the over representation of people with intellectual disabilities in Queensland justice system

Inquiry into imprisonment and recidivism – Queensland Productivity Commission

The Queensland Government asked the Queensland Productivity Commission to determine how government resources and policies may be best used to reduce imprisonment and recidivism to improve outcomes for the community.

QAI had a lot to say about this, having published editions of Disabled Justice in 2007 and 2014. Ten percent of prisoners in this state have intellectual disability. That’s five times the rate of the general population. Up to 30% of prisoners have some form of disability. Recidivism of Queensland prisoners who have intellectual disabilities is twice that of other prisoners: general recidivism is 38%, but 68% of prisoners with intellectual disability return to jail.

QAI’s submission to the Queensland Productivity Commission

Circular chart about the importance of the separation of powers

Protecting Queenslanders: QAI submission is critical of Queensland bill that would give the Premier power to make decisions on monitoring of people with disability convicted of sexual offences

The QAI submission to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee Inquiry into the Bill 2018 (‘the Bill’) opposes the Bill in general, and is critical of a number of provisions in the Bill proposed by Mr David Janetzki MP, the Member for Toowoomba South. In particular, QAI opposes the provision that would give the Premier power to make decisions on monitoring of people with disability convicted of sexual offences.

QAI told the Committee that the Bill:

.. [p]otentially departs from fundamental legislative principles because it mandates administrative rather than judicial power to review indeterminate supervision, undermining the separation of powers and the necessary checks and balances critical to the effective operation of our Westminster-based political system.

QAI’s Dr Nick Collyer appeared at the Committee’s public hearing, stating in his evidence to the Committee that:

For the vast majority of victims of sexual abuse, it is not about the stranger hiding in the dark alleyway or the paedophile in the playground. Most sexual assaults and rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. Among victims aged 18 to 19, two-thirds had a prior relationship with the offender. Most child sexual abuse is committed by men—90 per cent—and by persons known to the child—70 to 90 per cent—with family members constituting one-third to one-half of the perpetrators against girls and 10 to 20 per cent of the perpetrators against boys. According to one study, one in six Australian women were physically or sexually abused by the age of 15, one in three Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and on average one Australian woman is murdered per week by her current or her former partner.

Full Hansard transcript

QAI’s Dr Collyer on Parliament TV

The Committee’s reporting due date is Tuesday, 19 March 2019.

Response by QAI to the Queensland Government’s review of the operation of the Forensic Disability Act 2011 (Qld)

Queensland Advocacy Incorporated (QAI) thanks the Department of Communities, Disability Services and Seniors (Department) for tabling their review of the Forensic Disability Act 2011 (Qld) (FDA) on 9 October 2018 (FDA Review). We acknowledge that the FDA Review annexes the independent review of the Queensland Forensic Disability Service System prepared for the Department (FDSS Review) by the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology and thank the Department for facilitating that
review.

We take this opportunity to respond to the FDA and FDSS review.

Response by QAI to the review of the operation of the FDA – FINAL 20181109

Inquiry into imprisonment and recidivism – Queensland Productivity Commission

Protecting Queenslanders: QAI submission is critical of Queensland bill that would give the Premier power to make decisions on monitoring of people with disability convicted of sexual offences

Response by QAI to the Queensland Government’s review of the operation of the Forensic Disability Act 2011 (Qld)

Identification of people with intellectual disability in the criminal justice system

An important new resource offers hope for improvement for people with disability in the criminal justice system

Media release: ‘welfare cuts for the criminally insane’

Disabled Justice: The Barriers to Justice for Persons with Disability in Queensland