Justice Health 2019
The 2019 Conference theme was: Justice health is public health
The 2019 Conference focused on justice health being about more than just prisons. About 60% of adults in the corrective services system, and more than 80% of those in youth justice are supervised in the community, and almost all of those held in prison or detention are released back into the community. The health issues of people involved in the criminal justice system therefore are those of the community. With higher rates of mental illness, behavioural problems, disability, risky alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking, illicit drug use, chronic disease and communicable disease than people in the general community, this is a group with significant and complex health needs. Public health is about preventing ill-health through addressing underlying issues and inequities which impact on people’s health. The World Health Organization has promoted, and PHAA endorses, the concept that “Prisoner Health is Public Health”.
The purpose of the Conference was to once again highlight the health needs of people involved in the criminal justice system which are often viewed as separate from, or unrelated to, the health of the general community. Further, the social determinants of health share many similarities with the determinants of crime. Involvement with the criminal justice system has a huge impact on the community in terms of breaking up families, economic and financial impacts, and health outcomes. Thus the wider impacts are often overlooked when the focus is on punishment. With the massive over-representation of Aboriginal people in the justice system this has particularly resonance with the Indigenous peoples in Australia.
Prisons and detention centres present a dilemma for the community in terms of investing in the health and wellbeing of the group while at the same time meeting the community’s ‘perceived’ expectation of punishment. Health and well-being gains for individuals in prison or detention and those who have contact with the justice system in the community are health gains for us all, while missed opportunities adversely affect the broader community.
It is pertinent to ask whether the public health successes enjoyed in other areas (safer roads, gun control etc.) can be similarly applied to offending and the justice sector.
The Conference had high quality national experts presenting various aspects of justice health, it provided a forum for sharing a range of evidence, findings and ideas in justice health, as well as for making recommendations for the way forward.
Watch it now
-
Welcome to conference Adj Prof Terry Slevin
-
Public health and justice health - reflections and challenges Tony Butler
-
Aboriginal community control and justice health Donnella Mills
-
Justice Reinvestment and the role of health in reforming the criminal justice system Jill Guthre
-
Policy and Leadership - Panel Discussion
-
Prison Health Services - Reform, Advocacy, Complexicity Assoc Prof Richard Matthews
-
People with an Aquired Brain Injury and the Criminal Justice System Nick Rushworth
-
The neurobiology of disadvantage, epigenetics and the criminal justice system Prof Peter Schofield
-
Prison Health Nexus Panel Discussion
-
Patterns of crime and the age-crime curve in men who inject drugs with histories of incarceration Reece Cossar
-
Longitudinal changes in psychiatric well-being among men leaving prison reporting histories of injecting drug use Ashleigh Stewart
-
Dose-response relationship between methampetamine use and crime Reece Cossar
-
Alcohol and other drug treatment in prison Michael Doyle
-
Preventing relapse to smoking among former smokers released from smoke free prisons Dr Cheneal Puljevic
-
Automatic extraction of mental illnesses from domestic violence police event narratives George Karystianis
-
Addressing underlying psycho-social issues to reduce recurrent ED presentations and police interactions Nuala Chapple
-
Reception prisoners with undiagnosed mental illness Craig Cumming
-
Diversion down under - results of the national mental health court liaison services benchmarking project Fiona Davidson
-
Mental health, substance use and healthcare costs after release from Queensland prisons Kathryn Snow
-
Youth consumer perspective - raising the criminal age of responsibility Dylan Voller with Padraic Gibson
-
Drug Alcohol and Mental Health - Personal Journey Jeffery Ammatto
-
Health issues in the Children's Court of NSW Judge Peter Johnstone
-
Too young for Facebook, but old enough for prison Why Australia must raise the age of criminal responsibility Ruth Barson
-
Youth Justice and Prevention Panel Discussion Ruth Barson, Judge Peter Johnstone & Jeffery Amatto