Category: Aboriginal Australia

‘Not equal before the law’: Why regional drug addicts are often sent to jail, not rehab

ABC Online 15th June 2018 A retired judge has backed calls for more drug rehabilitation centres in the bush, warning addicts in regional areas are too often thrown behind bars. John Nicholson SC served as a New South Wales District Court judge for more than a decade and regularly presided over sittings in Dubbo, where … Continue reading ‘Not equal before the law’: Why regional drug addicts are often sent to jail, not rehab

Changing habits: Regional city calls for drug and crime rethink

ABC Radio National Background Briefing Sunday 17th June A community in regional NSW is pushing for a different approach to how it handles drug-related crime. While politicians have promised a drug court to divert offenders into rehabilitation, very little has been done. In this Background Briefing investigation reporter Bronwyn Adcock speaks to community leaders in … Continue reading Changing habits: Regional city calls for drug and crime rethink

The Captain Cook connection

The Monthly  May 2018 “The most frustrating thing is that everyone gets out there for Australia Day, there’s so much controversy, but April 29 comes around and there’s just silence.” It’s a windy autumn day, and Rodney Kelly is slumped over a wooden picnic table at the Bermagui headland, on the far NSW South Coast. … Continue reading The Captain Cook connection

Sick on the inside

The Monthly  April 2018 Over the final few months of his life, 31-year-old David Wotherspoon, an inmate at Cessnock Correctional Centre in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, increasingly believed that prison officers were plotting to kill him: poisoning his food and sending toxic gas into his cell. To protect himself, he barely … Continue reading Sick on the inside