Criminology Research Council grant ; (13/91)
This research outlined the major conditions encouraging the use of prison informers. A detailed article was prepared outlining the nature of the prison inmate code on informing. The key issues for public debate and political response were identified as being the reliability of evidence emerging from prison informers and integrity of the legal processes. Accordingly a number of regulatory proposals and reforms were made in the course of the research.
A number of the recommendations arising from this research have been addressed or adopted by various agencies. For example, the High Court has laid down a requirement for a prison informer warning; an inquiry was held specifically into the use of informants conducted by the NSW ICAC, and the ICAC has released two inquiry reports containing a range of recommendations, including an informer handling policy for police, which has been adopted by the NSW Police Service; the NSW DPP has instituted an Informer Index and elaborate policy guidelines in relation to informers; and the NSW Government has tightened various legislative criteria in relation to sentence discounts.