Jesuit Social Services believes the primary goal of any effective and humane criminal justice system is to ensure policy, legislation and budgetary decisions are all centred on prevention and early intervention. We shared this vision in our recent contribution to Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council’s Consultation into Adjourned Undertakings.
In our submission, we make a series of recommendations for reforms to adjourned undertakings, including:
- Changing legal terminology to more accessible language to ensure adjourned undertakings are more easily understood.
- Increasing access to supports for people who are given an adjourned undertaking.
- Reform the use of adjourned undertakings so that the people we work with can better access this type of order.
- Adjourned undertakings to be used as positive reinforcement of an individual’s commitment to rehabilitation and thus support them to be diverted from the justice system.
