Policy submissions

Here you’ll find a wide selection of policy papers and submissions we’ve published. Each paper draws on our experience working with disadvantaged youth, families and communities.

Reforming sentence deferrals in Victoria submission
- 10 January 2023
Read our submission to the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council’s consultation on sentence deferrals.
Submission to the Adjourned Undertakings Consultation
- 17 October 2022
Read our submission to the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council’s consultation into adjourned undertakings.
Submission to the Northern Territory's Consultation on Reform to the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility
- 26 September 2022
Read our submission to the Northern Territory's consultation to reform the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
Submission to Victoria's inquiry into children affected by parental incarceration
- 18 May 2022
We know that when a person goes to prison their entire community and family, including children, are impacted. Limiting people’s involvement with the justice system by ensuring prison is reserved only as an option of last resort, and keeping families connected is the best way to prevent this harm from occurring. Jesuit Social Services was…
Federal Election 2022 platform – A blueprint for a just recovery
- 21 April 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many pre-existing social and economic issues in Australia to the fore, from housing stress, to poverty, family violence, and insecure employment. As an organisation working with some of the most disadvantaged members of the community, we have witnessed firsthand the disproportionate impact of this crisis on already marginalised people and…
Prisons, climate and a just transition
- 19 January 2022
Australia, like many other countries, is seeing the damaging impact of climate change on communities and ecosystems. In the face of these worsening climate change impacts, marginalised people and communities are most at risk, including people in prison. In December 2019, when bushfires burned close to Lithgow Correctional Centre in New South Wales, people detained…
Submission to the Cultural Review of the Adult Custodial Corrections System
- 13 December 2021
Jesuit Social Services was pleased to contribute a response to the Cultural Review of the Adult Custodial Corrections System. The Victorian Government commissioned this independent review to ensure that Victoria’s adult custodial facilities promote rehabilitation and are safe environments for both people in prison and staff. The primary goal of any effective and humane criminal…
Submission to the Inquiry into Victoria’s Criminal Justice System
- 23 September 2021
COVID-19 has shown that alternative ways of operating the justice system are possible, and that there is an opportunity to ‘build back better’ with a socially and environmentally just system that is driven by evidence and best practice. Jesuit Social Services was pleased to make a submission to the Inquiry into Victoria’s Criminal Justice System,…
Keeping ‘Youth at the Centre’ of our 5th National Justice Symposium
- 22 September 2021
In July 2021, Jesuit Social Services partnered with the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) to host the 5th National Justice Symposium in Mparntwe/Alice Springs and online. Our biennial National Justice Symposium brings together key stakeholders and experts to explore issues and themes relating to criminal justice systems. This year, nearly 250 people came together…
Submission to the Victorian Government’s Consultation in response to the Victorian Government’s Discussion Paper ‘What matters to young people in Victoria’
- 18 February 2021
A statewide strategy that enables all young Victorians to thrive must specifically target people at heightened risk of disadvantage and be grounded in a framework of human rights principles. Jesuit Social Services was pleased to contribute a submission in response to the Victorian Government’s ‘What matters to young people in Victoria’ discussion paper, as part…