New Prison Planned for Darwin Region

"The Government's announcement of its intention to build a new prison in the Darwin region highlights how ineffective Territory Labor's law and order policies have been,” says Terry Mills, Leader of the Opposition.

"We have an overflowing prison population because of a sustained increase in the rate of violent assault in the Territory.

"The latest crime statistics show offences against the person in the Territory increasing by 18% from the same quarter of the previous year and violent assault up by 21% over the same period.

"The Territory's crime wave has been fuelled by a continual reduction in prison time actually served by offenders.

"In 2000-01, just before Labor came to office, the median time served by Territory prisoners was 239 days, by 2006-07 the median time served had dropped to 121 days.

"Under Labor the Territory's prisons have become a revolving door with offenders doing less and less time.

"As a consequence of this continual reduction in jail time, criminals have less and less respect for the law.

"One constant complaint I hear in my travels around the Territory is the brazen attitude of law breakers.

"The lack of fear of the law is also reflected in the Territory's increasing recidivism rates.

"Between 2002-03 and 2006-07 recidivism rates increased from 37.1% to 44.6%, against the national trend which went the other way.

"People who have no fear of the law break it more often.

"Not until there are genuine consequences for law breakers will we see a change in attitude.

"That means tougher sentences for violent offenders and a real boot camp for young offenders on the verge of becoming career criminals.”

2008-04-09