Criminology Research Council grant ; (12/84)
This report represents the results of a very detailed statistical study which aimed to assess the impact of the strike by prison officers in New South Wales which lasted from 7 February to 15 March 1984. For most statistical analyses in the report a comparison was made between the strike period and an equivalent control period in 1983. Data were collected for both periods from the police, the local courts, the higher courts and the prisons themselves.
The principal conclusion of this study is:
Even though there were thus hundreds of offenders at large during the strike who would 'normally' have been in custody, and there were many sentenced prisoners released earlier than they normally would have been due to the effects of the special strike remission, the statistics on the crimes reported and accepted as genuine for the whole of New South Wales made available by the Police Department did not disclose any marked change in the overall crime rate during the period of the strike compared to the control period.
The authors then related this finding to other research findings, including some produced by the Australian Institute of Criminology, and to recommendations of law reform bodies with a view to advocating the lower use of imprisonment, especially for fine defaulters and remandees.