A window broken by rocks and tomatoes splattered on the porch. This was the recent manifestation of tensions in the Southern Tasmanian town of Ellendale, sparked over the housing of two convicted paedophiles within the rural community.
The house, provided by religious charity The Freedom Centre1, was damaged2 in a vigilante attack. Although the Ellendale Residents’ Committee has condemned the vandalism, it is going ahead with a petition to have the elderly men relocated. A scarcity of resources means that The Freedom Centre cannot afford to simply buy a new house for the men and move them. The community is frustrated – why can’t these men just live somewhere else?
Committee spokesman Tony Donaghy told the ABC that the ex-offenders would be better off living in a central location with greater access to medical and counselling services, but the real cause for concern here is clear – the community of Ellendale is worried that these men will re-offend. Ironically, re-offending is exactly what The Freedom Centre, run by retired school principal Elizabeth Coleman, is trying to prevent. “Helping re-integrate men on parole and ex-offenders, helping to reduce the rate of recidivism [re-offending by ex-prisoners within two years of release],” is the mission statement that can be found on the Centre’s website.
Re-offending is a source of great angst for Australian society. Among proponents of both rehabilitation and remand, recidivism is seen as a sign of a failing justice system. 2012 saw damning public3 and legal responses to the rape and murder of Jill Meagher by parolee and convicted sex offender Adrian Ernest Bayley. In May this year, there was an outpouring of opinion on social media after Benjamin Batterham was charged4 with murdering home intruder Richard Slater-Dixon, after finding the man in his daughter’s bedroom in the early hours of the morning. Slater-Dixon had been released from prison last December, after serving over 20 months for breaking-and-entering and fraud. Although these are just two – albeit widely publicised – examples, concerns over re-offending are not unfounded. Rates of recidivism are disturbingly high Australia wide.
Recidivism among offenders is notoriously hard to track, but even if recent statistics are accepted as having limitations, they do show clear trends. A 2007 report5 by the Australian Institute of Criminology’s Jason Payne reviewed a number of studies into recidivism in Australia, and despite using different methodologies, the studies all yielded similar results. Offenders are frequently exiting prison, only to re-offend shortly thereafter – “between 35 and 41 percent of prisoners would be reimprisoned within two years of being released”. Of the 1300 prisoners tracked as part of a study published in 2014 by the University of Melbourne, 58 percent had served sentences previously. A more recent article6 by The Age put the national average for recidivism at just over 40 percent, citing the National Productivity Commission’s most recent findings.
Recidivism rates in Tasmania reflect national trends, and a major contributing factor is a lack of appropriate or adequate housing for people exiting prison.
“People steal out of need and necessity, people couch surf and tend to wind up using substances… young people go out and steal for some of the big crime families as a way of paying their “board” to sleep on the floor at one of these houses, and are paid in drugs. It’s an awful, vicious cycle,” explains a youth worker with the Tasmanian Government, who cannot be named for confidentiality reasons.
Greg Barns, Chair of the Prisoners’ Legal Service, agrees – “The famous prison chaplain in Victoria – Father John Brosnan – used to say that what a prisoner needs when they’re released is ‘a roof over their head, a job and a good friend’, and we fail in Tasmania in relation to all three. There is a strong link between lack of support for prisoners, in terms of housing, education, health, and recidivism rates. It’s in the community’s interests for these people to have secure accommodation.”
Last year, the Tasmanian Government cut funding to The Salvation Army’s Reintegration of Ex-Offenders program, preferring to redirect the money into the Department of Health and Human Services’ Housing Connect, a “one-stop shop”. Unfortunately, Housing Connect is struggling to meet the demand for housing within Tasmania. The DHHS Annual Report7 for 2014-15 puts the average wait time for Housing Connect applicants at 42 weeks, with Category One applicants facing a wait of 22 weeks. With wait times of almost a year for community housing, it is little wonder that many ex-offenders are finding it difficult to remove themselves from the cycle of poverty and crime. Private rentals are also near-impossible for ex-offenders to secure, with landlords unwilling to risk leasing their properties to unemployed people with prior convictions.
“Finding housing becomes the number one priority of case management. But when they’re transient, they’re so hard to engage in case management. And we know that they are out [in the community] committing further offending,” says the youth worker of the link between housing shortages and recidivism.
Barns argues that part of the problem is the Tasmanian Government’s unwillingness to be seen spending money on prisoners, as “there are no votes in it”. It’s not a topic you will hear party leaders or even Tasmanian candidates addressing during the current election campaign. But voters must realise that keeping offenders in a cycle of crime and imprisonment comes at a much greater cost to the taxpayer than funding community housing. Productivity Commission8 figures for 2013-14 put the cost of imprisonment per prisoner, per day at $393.80 for Tasmanians.
If the Tasmanian Government’s response to the situation in Ellendale is anything to go by, Barns is right. The ABC9 sought comment from a number of Tasmanian politicians in relation to the issue, and a game of responsibility “handball” quickly ensued.
“The area is well serviced with police officers, so look it’s a matter for the community,” Police Minister Rene Hidding was quoted as saying.
“I’m not certain that this is a planning issue or whether that’s more appropriately directed to the Department of Justice,” ventured Planning Minister Peter Gutwein.
The Minister for Justice and Corrections, Vanessa Goodwin, was yet to give comment to the ABC at the time the story ran, and declined to comment when contacted in relation to this article.
There are a number of NGOs working to provide the at-risk, including ex-prisoners, with safe and appropriate housing. Anglicare’s Trinity Hill, Common Ground, and The Salvation Army’s Social Housing and Support Service all work to support ex-prisoners in accessing the services and shelter necessary for rehabilitation. The statistical and anecdotal evidence demonstrates that the Government’s Housing Connect is not able to meet the needs of people exiting prison. If Tasmania is to see a drop in recidivism rates and the pressure on community housing eased, the Government needs to increase funding to organisations such as those listed above, which specialise in the reintegration of ex-prisoners.
When funding for The Salvation Army’s REO program was redirected into Housing Connect, then-Human Services Minister Jacqui Petrusma criticised the REO program for being “narrowly” targeted. The claim was true – ex-prisoners have unique and specific needs, and therefore need targeted programs to support their reintegration. According to the Government youth worker quoted above, organisations like Anglicare’s Trinity Hill and Common Ground are able to meet these needs – “they have onsite social workers, support with applying for jobs, writing resumes, engaging in pro-social activities, help with getting their driver’s licence. It’s amazing how much it can change a person’s life, just having an address.”
Barns agrees that the Government needs to work with NGOs that offer specialised support, because their services are delivered “much more efficiently”. An increase in Government funding for specialised housing programs would not only help ex-offenders, but also the wider community, in the form of lowered recidivism rates, reduced wait-times for community housing, and increased community safety. The situation in Ellendale is indicative of a wider problem with housing services that is affecting Tasmania as a whole.
Refs …
1 http://freedomcentretasmania.org/
2 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-21/home-for-ex-criminals-in-ellendale-tasmania-attacked/7262332
3 http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/26/adrian-bayley-raped-three-other-women-just-months-before-killing-jill-meagher
4 http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/mar/28/theyve-lost-their-father-family-heartbroken-after-death-of-newcastle-burglar
5 http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/rpp/80/rpp080.pdf
6 http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorias-prisoner-return-rate-soars-20150123-12wtaq.html
7 http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/204395/DHHS_Annual_Report_2014-15.pdf
8 http://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2016/justice/rogs-2016-volumec-justice.pdf
9 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-21/home-for-ex-criminals-in-ellendale-tasmania-attacked/7262332
*Kate Dewar is a teacher and freelance writer based in Hobart.
