Podcasts Other The Mike Hosking Breakfast Mark Mitchell: Corrections Minister on the removal of the prison reduction targets and cultural report funding

Mark Mitchell: Corrections Minister on the removal of the prison reduction targets and cultural report funding

Published: Feb. 7, 2024, 6:52 p.m.

The Corrections Minister says reducing prisoner numbers just puts offenders into the community. \xa0

The Government's also scrapping funding for pre-sentencing cultural reports. \xa0

Those reports consider how an offender's personal background may have contributed to their crime.\xa0

It's scrapping Labour's target to reduce the prison population by 30% and will introduce legislation to cap sentence discounts at 40%. \xa0

Mark Mitchell told Mike Hosking that in 2017, about $40 thousand was spent on cultural reports, growing to $7.7 million in 2023. \xa0

He says there was a senior gang member advertising they could write a cultural report, guaranteeing to have the sentence reduced. \xa0

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