Security starts at home. Although controlled by State governments (and often out-sourced to local or overseas companies), we are all affected by what is known as Correctional Services. Amongst our politicians this is normally seen as the punishment side of the Law and Order issue.

Prison sentences seem to have several purposes in our current system. Protect the public for the duration of the sentence, deter potential offenders, assure victims of crime that justice has been done, and convince convicted offenders that they don't want to offend again. I am not convinced the last purpose is being well served.

My father has a saying "Nobody ever did anything they didn't feel justified doing at the time". Despite the double negative, I have never been able to fault this. Wouldn't this mean that the most important aspect of convincing people not to offend again is understanding why they felt justified committing the crime in the first place and addressing that person's problems in that area?

I believe that the police and judiciary have gone to extraordinary lengths to attempt this through intervention mechanisms in the face of "tough" political grandstanding. If we were really trying to address recidivism (re-offending) though, wouldn't we see a correctional services model where psychologists and rehabilitation programs were an integral part of jail sentences.

Perhaps our state governments should consider penalising companies running Correctional Services institutions when an inmate re-offends after serving the sentence. It would certainly make the companies look very seriously at how they treat the prisoner during incarceration, not to mention the focus that may fall on government's responsibility for post-sentence support.

I don't claim to be an expert here, but I would like to hear from those who are.