Whose Justice are we Investing in? An Abolitionist Critique of Justice Reinvestment

• In Event: Penal Abolition 1 of 8: Abolition Strategies in Australia, Brazil, Nigeria and the USA

Abstract

Justice reinvestment discourses and institutions have proliferated in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom in the past decade. Justice reinvestment promotes an evidence-based approach to criminal law and sentencing policy and, it is held up by proponents, as the solution to rising rates of people in prison. In the Australia context, numerous high-profile reports have recommended justice reinvestment as the central policy response to the crisis of incarceration for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults and children. This paper will offer an abolitionist critique of justice reinvestment. Drawing on the work of abolitionist theorists and Sisters Inside’s work as an advocacy and support organization in Australia, we explore how concepts such as ‘justice’, ‘safety’ and ‘community’ are marshaled in a settler-colonial context to perpetuate the prison industrial complex. We will also consider the various ways these discourses mask the reality of widespread State violence and neglect in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Ultimately, we seek to challenge readers to imagine abolition by imagining responses to harm and social issues outside carceral structures.

Authors

• Debbie Kilroy, Sisters Inside, Queensland

• Marissa Dooris, Sisters Inside, Queensland