From: Hailes, Sonia (SEN) on behalf of Legal and Constitutional,
Committee (SEN)
Sent: Tuesday, 31 July 2001 2:37 PM
To: Wilson, Christine (SEN)
Subject: FW: MANDATORY SENTENCING INQUIRY



-----Original Message-----
From: David Pollock [mailto:pollsy@rocketmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 2:18 PM
To: legcon.sen@aph.gov.au
Subject: MANDATORY SENTENCING INQUIRY


The Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee
Parliament House 
Canberra  ACT  2600


Dear Secretary,

Re: MANDATORY SENTENCING SENATE INQUIRY

Mandatory sentencing needs to be abolished. The
decision on weather to imprison an offender or not 
should be left to the discretion of judges - ie.
decided on a case-by-case basis.

Statistics prove that mandatory sentencing does NOT
reduce or deter crime. Simply locking up offenders
does not tackle the root causes of crime, nor does it
help prevent them re-offending. The N.T. Correctional
Services report that the rate of  re-offending has not
gone down since mandatory sentencing was introduced.
In fact,  quite the opposite may be true. The  N.T.
Correctional Services says, “detainees learn from
their fellow inmates how to become more effective in
committing crime.”

Mandatory sentencing is also very expensive. Each
inmate costs the taxpayer over $145.00 every day.
There are also significant extra capital costs
involved such as the major expansion of Darwin prison.
Let’s bring the N.T.’s laws back into step withg the
rest of Australia.


Yours faithfully,

David Pollock
33 Martin Cresent
Coconut Grove
N.T.     0810

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