As prison populations grow across Australia, governments grapple with the question of how to reduce crime, improve community safety, and provide people who have offended with the support they need to be accountable to their actions and reorient their lives.
In order to inform the discussion around justice in Australia, Jesuit Social Services looked outside our borders for potential justice solutions.
In 2017, senior leaders from the organisation undertook an international #JusticeSolutions study tour, visiting Norway, Germany, Spain, the US and the UK, to analyse evidence of effective justice approaches and how these ideas might be incorporated in Australian justice systems.
In 2019, we took a similar study tour to New Zealand, to explore innovative justice solutions, from prevention and diversion through to detention and reintegration, and understand what works and what doesn’ts in other contexts.