The stigmatisation, control, criminalisation and incarceration of people with disability have a long history. While in recent decades there has been increasing commitment to the rights of people with disabilities by governments in western nations, the over-representation of people with mental and cognitive disability in criminal justice systems has continued. Although there are similarities amongst Western jurisdictions in regard to the treatment of people with disability in justice systems, there are particularities in Australia that will be drawn out in this article. We argue that disadvantaged people with mental and cognitive disability are being managed by and entrenched in criminal justice systems across Australia’s six states and two territories, including so-called diversionary and therapeutic measures that appear to accommodate their disability. In the absence of early and appropriate diagnosis, intervention and support in the community, some disadvantaged and poor persons with mental and cognitive disability, in particular Indigenous Australians, are being systematically criminalised. Criminal justice agencies and especially youth and adult prisons have become normalised as places of disability management and control. Drawing on research that focuses in detail on the jurisdictions of the Northern Territory and New South Wales, we argue for a reconstruction of the understanding of and response to people with these disabilities in the criminal justice system.

The NSW Government has recently announced the establishment of a number of accommodation and reintegration services for offenders leaving prison and for others subject to non-custodial or parole orders. This shift recognises the established importance of post-release accommodation and individual case management for ex-prisoners as important steps towards addressing the high rates of re-incarceration of people in NSW. However, like the vast majority of such services, this latest measure does not sufficiently respond to the specific issues facing Aboriginal women, who are experiencing the fastest rate of increase of all groups of prisoners across Australia. Aboriginal women have higher rates of return to prison, higher rates of social and physical disadvantage, and higher numbers of dependent children than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. Their specific experiences of intersectional discrimination on the grounds of their race and gender remain largely invisible to policy makers. This article draws on the principles of decolonisation, human rights and social justice alongside relevant research on post-release services and support to propose the development of an Aboriginal-women specific transitional model to assist in redressing the cycle of reincarceration for Aboriginal women in NSW. †

Crime data published by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) indicates that there is considerable variation in rates of Indigenous 1 offending from one area to another in NSW, including in areas that are comparable in terms of Indigenous population (Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research 2006). However, despite research findings that raise the importance of community context in relation to the offending of Indigenous individuals, there has been little investigation of the relationship between the dynamics of Indigenous communities and crime rates. In particular, there is a dearth of research that seeks to better understand the factors that may render Indigenous communities less prone to crime. This paper outlines the findings of a pilot study undertaken by a research team from Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology Sydney, with support from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR). The pilot study sought to better understand the factors that contribute to variations in rates of Indigenous offending by conducting qualitative research in two communities with significant Aboriginal populations, Wilcannia and Menindee, that are demographically and geographically comparable but with contrasting crime rates.

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