Lorana Bartels

• BA LLB LLM PhD GDLP CGTE
• Professor at Australian National University

The relationship between homelessness or unstable housing and reincarceration is well documented. The initial month after a person is released from custody is a period of particular vulnerability, with an increased risk of homelessness and return to prison. The Justice Housing Programme (JHP) is a programme developed by the Australian Capital Terri...

In this article, we use the 10 Key Components for Drug Courts (Components), to evaluate the performance of Australia’s newest adult drug court, the Australian Capital Territory Drug and Alcohol Sentencing List (DASL). We track DASL’s performance over the first 18 months of operation, finding that the program adhered quite well to the Components and...

New South Wales and Queensland have recently criminalised coercive control. Scholarship surrounding these reforms highlights the potentially negative effects on different sections of the community, with a focus on victim-survivors. However, the implications of the reforms for defendants with neurodevelopmental and cognitive disorders has been negle...

This article examines the integration of lived experience narratives into criminal justice, highlighting a significant shift towards a more inclusive and experiential approach within the field. We explore the contributions of scholars with lived experiences of the criminal legal system (CLS) to the academic and advocacy landscape, emphasising the e...

This article examines the human rights protections relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender ('LGBT') people in Australian prisons. We commence by addressing some of the inequalities experienced by incarcerated LGBT people, before outlining the relevant international human rights frameworks and their implementation in Australia. We focu...

Mobile technology presents opportunities within the justice system to support and promote behaviour change and the past decade has seen increased development and use of mobile applications for this purpose. This article aims to contribute to this burgeoning area by presenting the findings of research which scoped the utility of a mobile application...

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is overrepresented in prison populations globally. Although pharmacological treatment has generally been demonstrated to be an effective tool for managing ADHD symptoms in the general population, it remains controversial in the prison context. This is primarily due to concerns about the diversion and...

Within criminology, we have learned a lot about ‘what works’ in preventing offending and reoffending through the analysis of perpetrator data, in particular, understanding motivations to commit crime, strategies used by offenders to minimise cognitive dissonance, and the causes of desistance. However, as a field, domestic, and family violence (DFV)...

https://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/research/publications/process-evaluation-justice-housing-program This report presents the findings from a process evaluation of the Justice Housing Program (JHP). The JHP is a collaboration between the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Justice and Community Safety Directorate (JACS), especially ACT Corrective Services...

The hyper-incarceration of Indigenous Australians urges analysis of unconscious bias, the application of criminogenic risk assumptions, and structural impediments to consideration of Indigenous experience in sentencing. Disrupting deficit-based discourses requires new approaches to sentencing, in which First Nations voices are heard. This article e...

In this chapter, we examine the existing or possible strategies that parole authorities regard as having value for increasing public confidence and parole authorities’ views, as to the value of such strategies. We commence by examining the importance of public confidence, and various perspectives on whether and how to build such confidence. We then...

In this chapter, we describe the structure of the parole boards involved in our study, their membership, jurisdiction, and workload, and shine a light on parole authorities’ decision-making processes and the nature and extent of their engagement with the prisoners who appear before them. We examine the legal factors that guide the decision-making o...

In this chapter, we turn to the questions that motivated our study and underpin this book: what do parole boards make of public opinion on parole and do public views (whether real or perceived) matter when it comes to parole board decision-making? Before revealing our findings from interviews with parole board members from Australia, New Zealand, C...

In this chapter, we make some observations about the overarching findings from the study. We then make some concluding comments on the way forward for parole authorities and reflect on the role of public opinion in parole and parole decision-making.KeywordsParoleTrustPublic confidenceConfidence building strategies

This chapter outlines the scope of the project and the importance of studying public attitudes towards and public confidence in parole. It includes a general introduction, overview of parole authorities and the public, and the work of such bodies. It also explores broader issues, in relation to the function of and public attitudes towards parole. I...

Recidivism in Australia is high, especially in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). While high-quality stable housing has been shown to reduce recidivism, people released from prison face many barriers in obtaining housing. This paper reports on a qualitative study exploring the housing experiences of 11 people released from prison in the ACT. P...

The Family Violence Act 2016 (ACT) represents the Australian Capital Territory government's legislative response to issues of family violence ('FV'). While the Act aimed to better safeguard those experiencing FV, it is yet to be seen whether those amendments are effective and/or operating as intended. Through interviews with a range of professional...

Return-to-prison rates in Australia are high, with the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) having the highest rate. Research has consistently shown the importance of service provision while a person is incarcerated and post-release in overcoming post-release challenges that may lead to reincarceration. This article draws on the qualitative experienc...

Compassion has the capacity to change how we think and feel about people who offend, enabling us to understand individual and systemic causes of criminality and whether, and in what circumstances, desistance is possible. Across two experiments, our research examined whether a more compassionate sentencing delivery, firstly, in written sentencing re...

This article explores Australian penal diversity, through the lens of community sanctions. We first examine what is meant by ‘community sanctions’ and suggest that the problem of definition provides one of the reasons for the dearth of comparative studies on their use, compared with prison studies. The article then examines the concept of punitiven...

The increasing availability and use of mobile technology have allowed for innovative solutions to address a range of issues, especially in relation to health behaviour change. Such technological advances have also created opportunities within the justice context and the past decade has seen the development and use of mobile technology in the crimin...

There has long been concern about the dynamics and inadequacies that may arise when the federal family law system intersects with state and territory civil responses to family violence. We explore the intersection of these two legal regimes in this article. Our findings are part of a larger project examining the Family Violence Act 2016 (ACT) that...

Research has consistently shown that gaining employment after release helps to reduce recidivism, but also that people who have been in prison face many barriers to finding secure employment. This article presents qualitative data from the experiences of 11 people who had been released from prison in the Australian Capital Territory. We focus on th...

Parole and parole boards play critical roles in criminal justice systems. With parolee numbers and imprisonment rates increasing in many countries, parole decision-making is a crucial contributor to prison population sizes and, more broadly, public confidence in the operation of correctional systems. This article examines the public understanding o...

This paper presents a review of the key Australian legislation passed between 2009 and 2019 targeting outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs). It identifies the key similarities and differences across the reforms and provides examples of the legislation being used to disrupt serious and organised crime activity by OMCGs. It also presents some of the barrie...

Most of the research examining children visiting a parent in prison indicates that visits have a positive impact on children's well‐being, their connection to the imprisoned parent and the parent themselves. However, the COVID‐19 pandemic brought about a significant change to prison visits worldwide, with limits or bans on face‐to‐face contact. Und...

Civil protection order legislation is the primary mechanism in each of Australia’s eight jurisdictions’ system-based response to domestic and family violence (DFV). There are many differences across the states’ and territories’ legislation, with each amended numerous times since their inception in the early 1980s. The latter is exemplified by the n...

The emerging literature on desistance (and recovery from addictions) has focused on key life-course transitions that can be characterised as the need for jobs (meaningful activities), friends (transitioning to pro-social) and houses (a home free from threat). The term ‘recovery capital’ is used to characterise personal, social and community resourc...

This piece provides an introduction to the special issue on COVID-19, Criminal Justice and Carceralism – Critical Reflections and Change. It highlights the backdrop of recent events, including the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement, before articulating both the problems with penalty in the pandemic and the possibilities for justice.

This article focuses on gendered experiences of the criminal justice system, specifically the experiences of adult female victims of sexual offending and the communication difficulties they experience during the criminal justice process. Drawing on the findings from qualitative interviews about sentencing with six victims and 15 justice professiona...

This chapter explores how institutional inter-generational trauma is perpetuated by criminal justice interventions into the lives of Indigenous women. We illustrate how past and present colonial policies and practices have shaped Indigenous women’s lives and resulted in disproportionate incarceration across welfare and penal domains. The chapter th...

A plea of guilty is a long-accepted factor mitigating sentence in many countries, including Australia, although academic debate over the merits and application of the discount is ongoing. This paper presents findings from a national Australian study on public opinion on the guilty plea sentencing discount, with a particular focus on sexual offences...

This article presents data from questions about sex offender registration orders in a large national survey on Australian public opinion about adult sex offenders. It outlines the legislative frameworks that govern these registers in Australia and discusses the use of public registers, the research on the effectiveness of sex offender registers, an...

It is inevitable that some people granted conditional release will (re)offend, but most will complete their order without incident. Nevertheless, the standard approach adopted by correctional agencies to communicating with the public about community corrections is one of minimal information. We suggest that this may create an impression that offend...

Recidivism and reincarceration are a significant national issue. In 2020, the Australian Productivity Commission reported that almost 55 percent of people released from prison returned to prison, or received a community corrections order, within two years of their release. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has the highest rate of return to cor...

The 2013–2017 Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that children were abused in over 4000 Australian institutions between 1980 and 2015. The Commission referred at least 309 matters relating to abuse in Catholic institutions to the police. It is predicted that, in the coming years, older males will co...

International research provides support for yoga as a wellbeing intervention in prison. Until recently, no systematic research had been undertaken in Australia to assess the effectiveness of a yoga program, or consider the challenges of implementation. In 2017, the authors, in partnership with Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Corrective Services...

Recidivism represents the failure of the criminal justice system to adequately respond to cycles of crime and dysfunction. With increasing reoffending rates, Australia is demonstrably failing to reduce recidivism and facilitate desistance from crime. Therapeutic jurisprudence (‘TJ’) seeks to understand how law and legal process operate therapeutica...

This article examines women’s imprisonment in Australia through a feminist multifocal lens. We consider female prisoners’ gendered needs, especially “the triumvirate” of victimization, substance abuse, and mental illness. We also acknowledge the importance of taking an intersectional approach, with particular reference to Indigenous women. We ident...

Indigenous women are overrepresented in the Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand criminal justice systems, and their populations are increasing. This entry presents the available data on offending and imprisonment patterns, before identifying some common themes across the three jurisdictions. Specifically, Indigenous women offenders in all three c...

This article examines how time spent on parole, commonly known as ‘street time’, is dealt with where a parolee breaches their parole. In some jurisdictions, street time is credited as time served, in some it is forfeited and, in others, parole authorities have discretion whether to grant credit. This article examines Australian laws regarding credi...

International research provides support for yoga as a well-being intervention in prison. No systematic research has been undertaken in Australia to assess the effectiveness of prison yoga programs. In 2017, the authors, in partnership with Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Corrective Services and the Yoga Foundation, introduced a weekly pilot yoga...

The community of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) scholars and practitioners has grown in size and influence, both nationally and internationally, to the point where it has become a key driver of reform in courts and the criminal justice system. The Methodology and Practice of Therapeutic Jurisprudence is the first comprehensive work that explores an...

In Australia, the pace of legislative reform in relation to the post-sentence management of sex offenders has been particularly frenetic since 2016. This article analyses these recent reforms, arguing that while they have been extensive in number, they have not been extensive in nature: governments have simply sought to do more of the same, even th...

We argue that unconscious assumptions may filter out the diverse ‘realities’ of domestic violence victims. Despite legal and policy reform, it seems that these biases may continue to affect how relevant legislation is applied and interpreted. We examine a small sample of sentencing remarks in recent Queensland domestic violence order breach cases t...

Recent Australian reforms to parole following high-profile violations are premised on a purported public desire for greater restrictions on the use of parole. These changes reflect the tendency of legislatures to presume that the public is largely punitive and invoke a ‘forfeiture’ of rights rationale that weakens support for offender rehabilitatio...

This paper examines sentencing and treatment practices for juvenile sex offenders in Australia and the challenges of reconciling the imperatives of rehabilitation, accountability and community protection. It begins with an overview of juvenile offenders and the juvenile justice system, including the principles for sentencing young offenders. It the...

This article builds on the emerging understanding of Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) probation when viewed through the lens of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ). The article commences with recent conceptualizations of TJ through the metaphor and methodology of 'wine'/'liquid' and 'bottles' (Wexler, 2014). Next, the article prese...

Australia has nine different legislative regimes for sentencing and parole, as well as eight prison regimes; it has therefore been described as an ideal penal laboratory. This paper presents an overview of the extensive body of recent Australian research on public opinion on sentencing and, more recently, parole. The discussion on parole is situate...

In January 2017, six people were killed and at least 30 injured when Dimitrious Gargasoulas drove his car into pedestrians on Melbourne’s Bourke Street mall in an apparently deliberate attack. In the aftermath, community shock turned to outrage when it emerged that Gargasoulas had been released by a Victorian bail justice only days before. Within d...

This article examines the most recent changes in Australian parole laws, policies and practices in the context of the changing relations between legislatures, the courts and parole authorities. It argues that legislatures, purportedly reflecting public opinion, have become less willing to trust either the courts or parole boards and have eroded the...

This article seeks to understand Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) program through a desistance framework. The article commences with a brief overview of the literature on desistance and HOPE. It then explains how HOPE works. The main section of the paper describes observations of HOPE in action and the extent to which these al...

This chapter presents a brief overview of some key law reform developments and other legislative initiatives recently passed into law in Australia. We discuss significant changes to the law on bail, evidentiary rules, sentencing, and legislation targeting one-punch deaths and cybercrime. We also examine laws designed to limit the activities of outl...

This chapter presents the findings of the four evaluations of HOPE: the Integrated Community Sanctions Section (ICSS) pilot study evaluation; the RCT evaluation; the process evaluation, which gives important insights into how the program was perceived by key stakeholders, including probation officers, probationers, judicial officers and court staff...

This book presents a detailed analysis of Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) program. Developed by Judge Steven Alm in Hawaii in 2004, this model of ‘swift, certain and fair’ justice has been widely adopted across the United States. The book argues that although HOPE has principally been viewed in terms of its deterrent impact,...

This chapter draws on observational research conducted in 2016 to present an in-depth insight into the operation of HOPE. This is situated in the context of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) and solution-focused courts. The observations focus in particular on three features of the program described in Chap. 2: the warning hearing, the consequences of...

This chapter presents a more detailed description of HOPE, including the role of probation officers, the warning hearing and the rules governing the drug-testing regime. The consequences for non-compliance are then explained, as well as the possibility of early termination as a reward for compliance. The issues of drug treatment and mental illness...

In Chap. 6, the principal criticisms of HOPE are presented and critically evaluated. The key arguments center around the program’s popularity; the perception that HOPE is entirely focused on deterrence and punishment, rather than rehabilitation; an analysis of the evidence on its effectiveness, based on the evaluations presented in Chaps. 4 and 5;...

Chapter 5 presents the findings of the outcome, process and cost/benefit evaluations of other US programs based on HOPE. The jurisdictions examined are Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Manitoba, Michigan, an unnamed ‘Midwestern state,’ Texas and Washington State. The chapter concludes with the recent findings of the four demonstration field ex...

This chapter explores future directions and makes some concluding remarks. It describes the expansion of the HOPE model in the USA and overseas, as well as identifying key issues for jurisdictions considering implementing the model and areas for future research.

Electronic monitoring (EM) has been introduced in over 30 countries around the world. In most English-speaking countries, it has moved well beyond experimental status and become a regularly applied penal measure. Australia has been lagging behind this world trend, as EM has yet not become dominant in our correctional landscape. This is even though...

National Assessment of Australia’s Children’s Courts (the ‘national study’).1 e i ally this arti le fo uses on the perceptions of magistrates in the New South Wales (NSW) Children’s Court (‘NSWCC’ or the ‘Court’) in relation to the issues facing Indigenous young people in the Court’s criminal jurisdiction generally, and the potential of Indigenous...

em>This article examines Hawaii’s Opportunity with Probation Enforcement (HOPE) program through the lens of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ). The article presents an overview of TJ and solution-focused courts, followed by an overview of HOPE, including findings from four evaluations. It then provides a detailed description of recent observations of H...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the incidence and impact of exposure to sexual victimisation for women in the criminal justice system. Key ongoing vulnerabilities in respect of mental health and substance abuse, and their contribution to women’s offending, are examined. Treatment responses to address these women’s trauma in custodia...

Restorative justice and therapeutic jurisprudence measures have recently been introduced into youth justice systems. As gatekeepers to these measures, Children’s Court magistrates play a crucial role in their success. However, little research has been undertaken on magistrates’ views of these measures. This article addresses this gap by presenting...

This article seeks to draw conclusions about the potential impact of the Crimes Amendment (Abolition of Defensive Homicide) Act 2014 (Vic). We do so by considering whether defensive homicide served as a safety net in the 2014 case of Director of Public Prosecutions (Vic) v Williams. The article presents a detailed analysis of the trial transcript a...

In this article, we examine gender and the work culture in Australian private law firms. Our primary focus is the extent to which flexible work practices remain a quagmire for female lawyers. We consider the systemic barriers affecting women lawyers, including hidden attitudes, the persistence of a gendered division of labour in the private sphere,...

Same-sex couples are becoming parents in increasing numbers through the use of IVF and alternative insemination, and to a lesser degree through surrogacy and adoption. Often these couples form their families using a sperm or egg donor whom they know, and who they have agreed will play an active role in their children’s lives. In these circumstances...

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive background in relation to the use of suspended sentences in Tasmania. It is intended as a companion report to the Phasing out of Suspended Sentences: Consultation Paper that sets out possible replacements for the suspended sentence in Tasmania. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive background in rela...

This paper sets outs the Council’s preliminary views and draft recommendations following its deliberations on the approach to be taken to the phasing out of suspended sentences in Tasmania and the possible replacement sanctions. The Council has also prepared a companion document, Phasing out of Suspended Sentences: Background Report to inform the p...

Consideration of the media's representations of women who kill highlights dominant discourses in the framing of public responses to criminal acts of a particular kind, which in turn shapes legal responses to such acts. Generally, women who commit murder are, in some way, portrayed as an aberration of true womanhood — as either 'bad' or 'mad'. Throu...

This brief highlights some current initiatives in operation in Australian courts which seek to make the court process more responsive to the needs of Indigenous participants, along with some examples from New Zealand and Canada. Further sources of support, for example Aboriginal legal and victim support services and judicial education, including ju...

It is not widely appreciated that a considerable proportion of sex offending is perpetrated by other children or adolescents, including members of the victim’s family. This is largely obscured by court data and victim surveys. There is accordingly a danger that the issue of responding appropriately to the sexual offending of juveniles could be lost...

This article examines the Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) Program, first piloted in Hawaii in 2004, to determine whether it would be suitable for adoption in the Australian context. The article commences with an overview of the origins and operation of the HOPE program. It then considers the findings of outcome evaluations of...

Studies have identified that since women comprise only a small proportion of the prison population as a whole this correlates with a higher potential for inadequate gender-specific service provision. We are interested in seeing if, despite the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) being the first Australian jurisdiction to design and operate a prison...