STREAM
IQ2 Debate

DATE & TIME
01 AUGUST 2017

LOCATION
SYDNEY TOWN HALL

Should prisons rehabilitate offenders or punish?

If around half of prisoners are repeat offenders, are prisons really places of rehabilitation? Or are they just drains on the public budget?

Prisons should deter people from committing crimes, rehabilitate offenders, protect the community, and punish offenders. But are they more like drains on the public budget?

If around half of prisoners are repeat offenders, the number of people in custody has risen by a third, and Australia’s prisoners cost over $3.5 billion, we asked our speakers: do prisons work?

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Speakers

Julian Burnside

Julian William Kennedy Burnside AO QC is an Australian barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, and author.

Kerry Tucker

served four-and-a-half years in maximum-security prison. Kerry was released with a Master of Arts and went on to get a doctorate. She is an avid advocate for educating female prisoners.

Kerrie Thompson

is CEO of Victims of Crime Assistance League INC NSW (VOCAL), assisting men, women and children who are victims of crime.

Warren Mundine

is a prominent Indigenous leader and former national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He is now running for a Liberal seat in NSW.