NTCOSS submissions to the Justice Reinvestment Design

Discussion Paper

14 April 2022

NTCOSS Submission to the Justice Reinvestment Design

The Northern Territory Council of Social Service (NTCOSS) welcomes the opportunity to provide a
submission to the Justice Reinvestment Design Discussion Paper.
NTCOSS is the peak body for the Northern Territory (NT) Community and Social Services Sector and is
a voice for people affected by social and economic disadvantage and inequality. NTCOSS membership
is made up of community managed, non-government, not for profit organisations, which work in
social and community service delivery, sector development and advocacy. NTCOSS’s vision is a fair,
inclusive and sustainable NT.
NTCOSS welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Justice Reinvestment Design
discussion paper. NTCOSS represents over 130 members across the NT, including Aboriginal
community-controlled organisations (ACCOs), and organisations based in regional and remote areas.
NTCOSS recognises the specialist knowledge of members and external stakeholders with expertise in
matters relating to this discussion paper.
While this document uses the term ‘Aboriginal’, we respectfully acknowledge that Torres Strait
Islander peoples are First Nations people living in the Territory. Therefore, strategies, services and
outcomes relating to ‘Aboriginal’ Territorians should be read to include both Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Territorians.
NTCOSS acknowledges that we live and work on what always was, and always will be, Aboriginal
land. We pay our respects to Aboriginal cultures and country, and to Elders both past and present.
NTCOSS supports makarrata and acknowledges the Voice as a critical steppingstone to truth telling
about Australia’s colonial history, and creating a foundation to work and walk together to build a
future based on equity and freedom. NTCOSS supports a constitutionally enshrined Voice to
Parliament to enable Aboriginal people to provide advice to the Parliament on policies and projects
that impact their lives and communities.
General comment
Justice reinvestment in the Australian context has five core principles.

Place-based

Evidence-based

Community Development through community-based leadership

Economically rational

Focused on decreasing incarceration of Aboriginal people

These five principles must be upheld throughout the entire process to ensure success and long-term
sustainability. Part of upholding these principles is thorough consultation and sufficient support to meet
community needs and wishes throughout the process. NTCOSS has heard concern from organisations
involved with preparing communities for potential funding that this consultation process has been
too short and in a format that has not allowed communities to fully participate.

Recommendation: The Commonwealth Government should work more closely with communities to
ensure communities not only understand but are driving and directing the process.

Systemic and legislative landscape

In order to be successful, justice reinvestment projects must operate within a system that supports
rather than hinders. Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments must work together with
genuine cooperation and commitment to justice reinvestment to create a supportive landscape.
In the NT, those implementing the Aboriginal Justice Agreement (AJA) are attempting to transform
the legislative and systemic landscape into one that would support justice reinvestment. The AJA and
the Pathways to the Northern Territory Aboriginal Justice Agreement report are at Annexures A and
B. The AJA includes commitments across the spectrum of justice reinvestment. Upstream (or social
justice) commitments include the establishment of community law and justice groups who may
develop community safety plans and run community-based programs, and the review of systemic
racism in Government agencies. Downstream (or criminal justice) commitments include the review
of prison programs and the review of legislation to identify discriminatory impacts. Justice
reinvestment initiatives will fail to achieve their full success potential if justice legislation continues to
disproportionately negatively impact Aboriginal Territorians, Government services remain
inaccessible to remote residents and Aboriginal Territorians continue to experience daily racism,
both personal and systemic.
Despite bipartisan commitment to the AJA, knee-jerk responses to crime without any evidence-base
continue to come from NT Government and Opposition. Most recently, NT bail laws were reformed,
introducing a presumption against bail for those charged with violent offences involving a weapon,
applying to both adults and young people. All the evidence indicates this will lead to more people
incarcerated, in turn leading to increased reoffending.2 These sorts of reforms are contrary to the
principles of justice reinvestment and are a significant barrier to the success of justice reinvestment
projects. Without genuine buy-in from all governments and decision-makers, communities will face
an uphill battle to implement their strategies and see success.
It is also important to understand existing frameworks relevant to this work, including the 10-Year
Generational Strategy for Children and Families, the broad Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence
reforms, the work of the NT Children and Families Tripartite Forum, and the Closing the Gap strategy.
Initiatives from communities that fit under these frameworks may be able to leverage these for
funding and other support. Further, where initiatives are already driven by Government, it may be
appropriate to shift control to the community.
Consultation questions
What sort of activities should be funded through the National Justice Reinvestment Program?
Should funding be available to support governance, data collection and analysis, and other
foundational and operational aspects of justice reinvestment, including through partnerships with
organisations outside of the community?
Yes, foundational steps of justice reinvestment must be adequately resourced.


Community interest, participation and decision-making
Justice reinvestment must be led by the community. It is dependent on “community leadership and
cohesion around a shared goal”3. The role of Government and other funders is to provide support to
communities to proceed as the community sees fit.

Communities in the NT are in the early preparation stages now. They are working to promote
community understanding of justice reinvestment and develop governance structures that reflect the
community and prioritise Aboriginal leadership and ways of working. They are doing this work
however with no funding or support. Matters as seemingly simple as where to hold community
meetings are made difficult by the lack of funding. Communities should have access to early funding
to assist with this process, in the form of discretionary funding, remuneration for community
members and community based paid positions to provide secretariat, research and other support.
This may already be the intention of the Commonwealth Government. However, NTCOSS has been
told that communities are feeling in the dark about the process ahead and feel pressure to progress
through the important foundational stages quickly so as not to miss out on funding.


Data gathering / justice mapping
Justice mapping is an essential foundational step for justice reinvestment. The Australian Law Reform
Commission’s Pathways to Justice report puts this as the first major stage. “Justice reinvestment is
distinguished by its emphasis on using data to analyse the drivers of contact with the criminal justice
system”.4 Before justice reinvestment strategies and indeed before appropriate sites can be
identified, justice data must be analysed to determine need and potential success for justice
reinvestment initiatives – this includes data demonstrating why people in their community are
entering the justice system as well as identifying community strengths, existing structures, leadership
and appetite for change.5 NTCOSS is not aware of sites receiving support to conduct the necessary
data gathering and mapping. This aspect of the project requires resourcing to communities, expertise
and buy in from local government agencies. It is unrealistic to expect communities to draw and
analyse data themselves without this support.
As explained by Fiona Allison and Chris Cunneen, the data work at every stage of the justice
reinvestment process must be informed by data sovereignty principles, including that community has
access to the data it needs; community can design and gather their own data and identifies key
measures of success.6
Ongoing monitoring and evaluation should also be built into resourcing from the outset. This is an
issue of concern across the service sector. Many contracts require reporting of outputs rather than
outcomes. Reporting systems and templates are frequently not fit to capture outcomes and stories of
success or areas for improvement. Data gathering and reporting is often an unresourced burden on
organisations. Services and programs are infrequently independently evaluated due to lack of
resourcing. Monitoring and evaluation of the justice reinvestment process will be important to build
an evidence base for future projects.

Partnerships
Partnerships with organisations outside the community must be determined by the community
themselves. Further, they should uphold the Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the NT (APONT)
Partnership Principles (Annexure C). These outline the importance of ACCOs and Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander communities being in control of program creation and delivery. Place based,
community driven, culturally appropriate and safe models of service delivery, ensuring principles of
co-design, are essential to any program or framework success.
Recommendation: The Commonwealth Government should engage closely with communities to
provide appropriate support for the foundational stages of justice reinvestment
Should funding be able to be directed to a range of activities within a community?
NTCOSS has been told that decisions on what activities should be funded, beyond foundational steps,
is premature and risks derailing the process. Ultimately, where funding should be directed must be
up to each community. Resourcing decisions must be community-led, specific to the needs and
strengths of the location, evidence-based, economically rational and focused on decreasing
incarceration of Aboriginal people.
7
Funding must empower communities to make their own decisions rather than imposing a top-down
narrative of what communities might need. As outlined above, NTCOSS has been told that early
funded community-based positions to assist the community in getting ready, including helping the
community learn about justice reinvestment, developing governance structures and engaging with
the Government process, is necessary. Further, community members should be financially
compensated for their contribution in doing the foundational work.
Funders must also consider the challenges of service delivery in remote and very remote locations.
Funding models should reflect the complexity of services, workforce challenges and access issues.
NTCOSS has also heard concern about the amount of funding available. While justice reinvestment
should ultimately involve already dedicated funds being re-directed to early intervention and circuit
breaker initiatives, the early stages require proper funding to set the project up for long-term
sustainability. It is yet unclear whether the amount of promised funding will be sufficient for the
long-term nature of this project.
Recommendation: Funding should be directed as determined by communities and in line with justice
reinvestment principles.
How can the Government ensure the grants process is accessible to communities and organisations
wanting to apply for justice reinvestment funding?

Applying for grants is often time consuming and complicated. NTCOSS is frequently told that
organisations are not resourced sufficiently to apply for grants, limiting the opportunities for service
expansion. The aforementioned proposal of community based funded positions to assist
communities to get ready would be well placed to assist the community in applying for grants. Grant
portals and forms are often complicated or confusing. These should be simplified and streamlined.
A competitive tendering process is likely to undermine the justice reinvestment approach from
outset, by pitting organisations against each other, entrenching existing politics, and excluding
organisations without capacity. There are also pitfalls with the ‘tap on the shoulder’ approach as

organisations not chosen may disengage from the process and there is a lack of transparency about
how and why an organisation was approached to deliver a project.
At this stage, the structure of funding is uncertain. It remains however that supporting or auspicing
organisations must be back-bone supporters and community must be the drivers of decision-making.

Who should be involved in assessing applications for justice reinvestment funding?
As suggested in the discussion paper, Aboriginal people and justice reinvestment experts should be
included in assessment panels. In determining the process, the five justice reinvestment principles
must be upheld.

How should the success and development of justice reinvestment initiatives be measured?
In keeping with the principles of justice reinvestment, communities should be empowered to define
what success looks like and to track their own progress. As stated above, the data work at every
stage must align with data sovereignty principles. With that in mind, NTCOSS makes the following
suggestions.
Justice reinvestment initiatives should ultimately result in reduced incarceration and reduced
offending. These are long term goals. While this should be measured, it must not be the only metric
and expectations of early success must not be unrealistic. Baseline data must be gathered from the
outset, including data from government agencies as well as data from community on matters such as
their experiences with the justice system and sense of self-determination. Justice reinvestment is a
process guided by core principles rather than a program.8 The upholding of these principles including
by measuring and monitoring community ownership, engagement and sentiments of the process is
important.
Resourcing for monitoring and evaluation must be built into funding arrangements. Communities
must be empowered to gather and analyse the data themselves. When called for by communities,
external organisations may be contracted to assist.
Access to necessary data will largely depend on cooperation from local government agencies.
Communities may need to work with local agencies to capture the data needed and should be
empowered to do this – for example, Police may record the name and age of a child referred for
diversion, the community may also want Police to record whether that child is Aboriginal or not,
whether they are local to the community, etc. It may be appropriate for the Justice Reinvestment
Unit (the Unit) to assist in brokering this level of cooperation. These and further data access issues
are considered under Priority Reform Four of Closing the Gap.

Recommendation: Communities should be empowered and resourced to define success measures
National Justice Reinvestment Unit
How can the National Justice Reinvestment Unit best support justice reinvestment in Australia?
What functions or services should the Unit provide?

The Unit should provide back-bone support to justice reinvestment sites. All actions of the Unit must
support communities to drive their own processes and align with justice reinvestment principles.

The ALRC report recommends that the Unit provide technical assistance, insofar as requested by
communities. The report advises that the Unit should not be involved in imposing plans or allocating
funding. It suggests the Unit be an independent body that creates policy options and helps to
achieve buy-in from stakeholders, including governments and local agencies. NTCOSS supports this
proposal. As described above, it is important that the legislative and systemic landscape supports
justice reinvestment and that agencies cooperate as needed with justice reinvestment strategies.
Ultimately, different communities will have varying needs and levels of readiness. To determine the
purpose of the Unit, communities engaging in the justice reinvestment process should be consulted
directly to understand how the Unit can be useful while ensuring control of the process stays with
communities.

Recommendation: The Unit should provide back-bone technical support and should consult with
communities to determine how best to support, keeping justice reinvestment principles in mind

How should the Unit be structured and governed?
The principles of justice reinvestment must be considered when determining the governance and
structure of the Unit. Aboriginal leadership and decision-making should be embedded in the
structure and governance of the Unit.
For more information, or to discuss this submission further, please contact Sophie Hantz, Senior
Policy Officer at sophie@ntcoss.org.au or Sarah Holder, Policy Manager at sarah@ntcoss.org.au.

1 Fiona Allison and Chris Cunneen, Justice Reinvestment in Australia: a review of progress and key issues
(Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney, 2022).

2 Justice Reform Initiative, State of Incarceration: insights into imprisonment in the Northern Territory, (2022),
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/justicereforminitiative/pages/351/attachments/original/1679869813/JRI_Insi
ghts_NT_FINAL-7.pdf?1679869813, accessed 13 April 2023.

3 Fiona Allison and Chris Cunneen, ‘Implementing Justice Reinvestment in Australia’, Indigenous Clearing House,
https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/1.-Implementing-Justice-ReinvestmentIN-AUSTRALIA.pdf, accessed 13 April 2023.
4 Australian Law Reform Commission, Pathways to Justice – Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Final Report No. 133 (2017).
5 Fiona Allison and Chris Cunneen, Justice Reinvestment in Australia: a review of progress and key issues
(Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney, 2022).
6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.