| Minister's name | The Hon Ben Carroll MP |
| Portfolios | Minister for Crime Prevention Minister for Corrections Minister for Youth Justice Minister for Victim Support |
| Did the minister's spouse accompany the minister in an official capacity? | No |
| Accompanying Ministerial staff | Michael Livingstone, Chief of Staff |
| Countries visited | United States of America and United Kingdom |
| Dates of travel | 21 July to 3 August 2019 |
| Number of official travel days (including days of departure and return) | 14 days |
| Funding source | Department of Justice and Community Safety |
| Air fares (including taxes and fees) | $38,080 |
| Accommodation (including taxes and fees) | $12,741 |
| Other expenses (including surface travel and allowances) | $4,867 |
| Travel cost for Minister and ministerial staff | $55,688* |
* The above costs are not final and complete
Purpose of travel
The Victorian Government is currently pursuing a range of criminal justice reforms which aim to more effectively prevent crime, reduce reoffending, and put victims at the heart of the criminal justice system.
The United States and United Kingdom are countries with comparable criminal justice systems and traditions to Victoria. The past decade has been a period of substantial innovation in criminal justice policy at both the national and regional level in both of these countries, with a particular emphasis on adopting public health approaches to address the root causes of crime. In both countries there are approaches and initiatives that are recognised as international best practice in preventing crime at the community level, reducing the demands and costs of incarceration, and strengthening the voices of victims in the justice system.
The purpose of my travel to the United States and United Kingdom was to build knowledge, and gain insights and advice from organisations and individuals involved in these world-leading reforms. The trip also provided an opportunity to initiate and strengthen partnerships across public and private sectors in the US and UK with the Victorian Government that will support reform and innovation in crime prevention, victims support, corrections, and youth justice in our state.
The itinerary was intensive and involved more than forty meetings in five cities over the course of the fortnight. I met with researchers, government representatives, members of the judiciary, law enforcement, elected officials, program designers and community organisations. The trip was also an opportunity to share progress on work we are doing here in Victoria and to form valuable partnerships for the future.
Benefits of travel to the State of Victoria
The visit allowed me to meet with leaders to discuss in depth some of the important challenges faced in the Corrections, Crime Prevention, Youth Justice and Victim Support spaces, and establish working relationships that will support future knowledge exchange and capability building.
Valuable relationships have been developed with key international organisations and governments as a result of my travel, and my Department will maintain ongoing working relationships and formalise a number of partnerships that will inform work across my portfolios.
In New York and London, I was able to meet with a number of organisations and individuals with operations at an international and national level. These organisations were leading or involved in reform efforts across the length and breadth of the United States and United Kingdom and were able to share insights from these wider efforts.
Overall everyone we met with was very generous with their time and resources and were eager to share their experiences in ways that could help us anticipate challenges with particular reform efforts or approaches to program design. The information that I have gathered and learned on this trip will be highly beneficial to the priorities being progressed across all four of my portfolios.
Crime Prevention
Across the United States and United Kingdom over the past decade, there have been a number of highly successful initiatives focused on working with communities to reduce crime by addressing its root causes. A number of these initiatives have been tied to wider reforms to reduce the cost of rapidly growing prison populations under the banner of justice reinvestment and have been accompanied by efforts to deepen engagement with community on these issues.
This Victorian Government has initiated work on a long-term crime prevention agenda focused on the root causes of crime, and has established a Crime Prevention Taskforce that brings together community, business, and sporting leaders. The Crime Prevention Taskforce have been briefed on the examples of international best practice that I observed during this trip. This included: the New York Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, the Harlem Children’s Zone, The United States Council of State Governments, the University of Chicago Urban Crime Lab, the City University of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the Columbia University Justice Lab, the New York University Brennan Center for Justice, the Countering Violence Extremism Unit of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the London Violence Reduction Unit, the What Works Centre for Crime Reduction, the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, and the Institute of Strategic Dialogue.
A particular highlight was meeting with the Director and staff of New York Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice to discuss the government’s approach to crime prevention and community safety. The Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety is the mechanism being used to mobilise residents and city agencies to reframe the concept of public safety by addressing the underlying drivers of crime through the use of shared knowledge, data and performance metrics to build legitimacy, accountability, safety and trust. My department has since connected with the Mayor’s Office to discuss this work in light of the government’s work on a renewed crime prevention agenda.
Visiting the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), a key learning was the single-minded focus on producing outcomes through education across the life course from cradle until college. In Harlem, we met with two key Program Directors, both of whom had personal experience of the benefits of the program, which seeks to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty through meeting the education needs of the community - from birth to college. The HCZ ring fences the zones that are part of the program in Harlem (more than 100 sites involved) and creates ‘a pipeline of coordinated, best-practice programs’ to support families and their children stay connected with education outcomes. The programs track alongside a child’s education needs, including ‘baby college’, and run parallel programs that focus on parenting, well-being and health within the family, as well as prevention. The HCZ’s success seemed to benefit greatly from adhering to strict governance arrangements and high expectations in programs demonstrating measurable outcomes, or funding would cease and new programs stood up in their stead.
The University of Chicago Urban Crime Lab, the City University of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the Columbia University Justice Lab have all supported the development of innovative and evidence-based approaches to reduce crime in communities across the United States. Meetings with these organisations provided insights into the use of data, collective problem solving at the community level, and the building of partnerships to address criminal justice issues. Engagement and information sharing between these organisations and my Department have continued following my visit, with discussions on future collaborations and a leader of the Columbia University Justice Lab visited Melbourne and spent time with my Department and community groups during September 2019.
In the United Kingdom, Violence Reduction Units in London and Glasgow are adopting a public health approach focused on addressing the root causes of crime. The well-established work of the Glasgow unit was particularly interesting with strong connections built between police, education providers, and other community groups. Glasgow has seen a dramatic drop in crime over the past decade, which the unit has contributed to through its grassroots problem-solving approaches.
Victim Support
As the first Minister for Victim Support, I am committed to delivering reforms that improve the experience and strengthen the voice of victims in our criminal justice system. This trip provided me with the opportunity to learn what other jurisdictions are doing to support victims of crime through support services, reforms to justice processes, and by enhancing their voice across the justice system. A key takeaway was that many of the issues we are focused on in Victoria are being experienced elsewhere, and that a number of Victorian initiatives could be considered world leading.
A highlight was meeting with the team at Safe Horizon in New York, one of America’s largest victim service agencies. Safe Horizon offers support to victims across all five boroughs of New York City. I met with the CEO and members of her team, who talked about the wide span of services they provide to all victims of crime, with specialist arms for victim survivors of rape, family violence victims and children.
They also introduced me to one of their in-house lawyers who provided a tour of one of the Family Justice Centres (FJC) at the court in New York City. These are an initiative of the Mayor’s Office and are also located in each of the five boroughs. The FJCs are staffed by multi-disciplinary teams of workers so that victims of family violence and other victims of crime can be connected to organisations that provide case management, financial assistance and financial counselling, legal assistance and counselling options. District Attorney's Offices are located on-site at FJCs, to make it easier for survivors to get legal advice and help. Interestingly, FJCs also have a Safe Horizon worker as part of the multi-disciplinary team, so that victims of all crime types can benefit from the supports they have there at the Centre.
In the United Kingdom I met both the Victims Commissioner for London and the Victims Commissioner for England and Wales, and discussed opportunities and challenges in their roles, and the similarities and differences to their jurisdictions and Victoria. The department has since connected both Commissioners with Fiona McCormack, our newly appointed Victims of Crime Commissioner in Victoria.
The Victims of Crime Commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Vera Baird QC, talked about her key priorities including a review of their criminal injuries compensation system and a review of the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime (the Victims Code). The Victims Code is the statutory code that sets out the minimum level of service that victims should receive from the criminal justice system. It applies to all criminal justice agencies and is similar, in concept, to the Victims’ Charter in Victoria. Both these reviews will offer some helpful insights into the work that I have asked the Department to progress on the Financial Assistance Reforms and the review of the Victim Service System.
Claire Waxman is the first Victims Commissioner specifically dedicated to elevating the voices of victims in London. The establishment of her role is part of the Mayor of London’s initiative to focus on victims of crime. The role is separate but complementary to the Victims Commissioner for England and Wales. We met Claire on the eve of the release of an important report that focused on the criminal justice systems’ treatment of rape victims. She and her team published their reflections on the findings and included recommendations on what she sees as the priorities for reform.
Other meetings that focused on victims support issues included with Dame Joyce Plotnikiff and Richard Woolfson, the UK Ministry of Justice, and Victim Support Scotland.
Corrections and Youth Justice
Linked to innovative crime prevention efforts across the United States and United Kingdom have been efforts to reduce demand and improve the performance of Corrections and Youth Justice systems.
This work has focused on strengthening employment, education and community connections for offenders in the system, as well as efforts to divert offenders through community-based programs.
Organisations involved in this work that I met with during the trip included Bard Prison College, the Vera Institute, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, the Office of United States Senator Corey Booker, the Criminal Court of the City of New York, the VERA Institute, the Youth Justice Board of England and Wales, the Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice, Social Finance, the Prison Reform Trust UK, the Scottish Association for the Care and Reintegration of Offenders (SACRO), the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance, and the Social Cooperative Network.
In New Jersey I met with Sheriff Cureton, the first elected African-American sheriff of Bergen County which is the most populous local government area of the state. The Sheriff's Office oversees courthouse security, the transporting of prisoners, and the Bergen County Jail. To that end, Sheriff Cureton took our group to the jail for a tour. We met with prisoners who were engaged in a range of intensive drug treatment programs who spoke openly about the gains they were making, and their preparations to reduce their risk factors on release. Following this meeting, we connected with US Senator Corey Booker’s Office to discuss Federal criminal law reform and his recent bi-partisan bill that was signed into law in December – the First Step Act. This new legislation incentivises a number of rehabilitation and reintegration initiatives for prisoners and was supported by the Trump Administration.
I also had the opportunity to meet with the Hon. George A. Grasso, from the Bronx Hall of Justice to discuss his approach as the Supervising Judge of a new program – Pre-Trial Supervised Release. Our visit coincided with a graduate ceremony that allowed us the opportunity to meet with graduates of the program all of whom had made significant gains with education and employment. They maintained strong relationships with case managers that had helped them to lead substance-free lives. Judge Grasso was the judicial ‘champion’ of the program and spent time with us in his chambers describing its origins, and his continued efforts in bringing greater insight to his colleagues about the benefits of the approach.
I had a productive discussion on the role of education in the criminal justice system with representatives from the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI). The BPI has established colleges in six prisons with more than 300 incarcerated students currently enrolled in fulltime programs that will result in degrees from Bard College. BPI has developed a network of leading universities and colleges that relies on a highly effective relationship between education and criminal justice. BPI’s newest initiative, the Bard Microcollege, expands the scope and impact of their work to delivering liberal arts education to isolated communities outside of prison through partnerships with community-based institutions.
In the United Kingdom, the Youth Justice Board provided an overview of reforms that have taken place to youth justice over the past decade. Enhanced case management and multi-agency working has been a feature of reforms and has similarities with Multi-Agency Panels that have been established in Victoria over the past two years. Information on best practice provided by the Youth Justice Board will inform work that continues in Victoria to deliver reforms to youth justice following the Armytage and Ogloff review.
We also had an opportunity to meet with the Chief Executive of SACRO to understand how their organisation works to provide safer and more cohesive communities across Scotland. In Glasgow I met with Dr Beth Weaver and discussed social cooperatives as an innovative reintegration programs for prisoners and factors for success. Following this meeting I met with Dr Alistair Fraser, Associate Director for the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research to discuss street and gang culture and share information about the prevention of violent offending involving young people.
Next Steps / Follow Up
The department has connected with several contacts that were made throughout the trip, some of which I have already mentioned above.
Key follow up actions and next steps have included:
- Linking the Crime Prevention team within the department with the team leading the design and implementation of the Mayors Action Plan in New York. Discussions have taken place between the relevant executives to discuss the fundamentals of the Neighbourhood STAT interventions which will inform the development of Victoria’s crime prevention agenda.
- There has been follow up discussion with Columbia University’s Criminal Justice Lab and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice on opportunities to partner in supporting the development of Victoria’s crime prevention agenda. Professor Vince Shiraldi from the Columbia Justice Lab travelled to Melbourne and met with the department to discuss reforms to justice policy. Mr Shiralidi also spoke as the key note speaker at the recent National Justice Symposium. Further discussions on potential partnerships continue.
- The Crime Prevention Taskforce has been briefed on the outcomes of the trip, including examples of best practice in early intervention from the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice in New York and the Harlem Children’s Zone. This will inform the work of the Taskforce.
- The Victorian Victims of Crime Commissioner has been linked up with her counterparts in London.
- There has been follow up with Victim Support Scotland on their design of new systems approaches for supporting the bereaved families of murder victims.