NSW: Indigenous offenders to work on cattle farm instead of jail

AAP General News (Australia)
08-06-2009
NSW: Indigenous offenders to work on cattle farm instead of jail

A new approach to cut down on the number of young indigenous offenders suggests sending
them instead to work on a cattle farm in northern New South Wales.

The property Balund-a .. near Tabulam in the state's far north .. will house up to
50 men and women aged between 18 and 35 .. who would otherwise be sent to prison.

Corrective Services Minister JOHN ROBERTSON says he wants to deal with the high indigenous
incarceration rates .. with more than one in five inmates in the state's jail being of
Aboriginal descent.

At the same time .. New South Wales auditor-general PETER ACHTERSTRAAT has released
an unrelated report calling for an expansion of services for Aboriginal defendants in
the judicial system.

Mr ACHTERSTRAAT says the percentage of Aboriginal people in the New South Wales prison
system has never been higher.

AAP RTV nr/hn/wz

KEYWORD: MERIT (SYDNEY)

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