Deconstructing incarceration : the discursive practices of the judiciary in the NSW District Court

Abstract

Imprisonment in Australia remains an important form of crime control despite its enormous economic costs and its failure to reduce crime. This is most concerning in New South Wales (NSW), having the largest national prison population and the highest prison expenditure. While the literature suggests that this growth is due to recent sentencing trends, very little is known in this context of the wider assumptions and discourses influencing the judicial decision to imprison offenders. To begin to address this gap, this study employed a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of recent judicial sentencing remarks from the NSW District Court to examine how imprisonment is being discursively legitimised by judges as an important form of crime control. Analysis found that despite being aware of the harms of imprisonment, judges justified its use as a 'punishment' tool via a retributive view of 'justice' that privileged the needs of the community over the criminal 'Other'. In line with penal abolitionism, these findings highlight the need to shift dominant discourses of imprisonment perpetrated in the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) and by judges in the NSW District Court. A rethinking of these discourses may aid in addressing the high prisoner population by creating more equitable outcomes for offenders and thus assist the NSW Government's priority in creating 'safe, just, inclusive and resilient communities' (Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) 2019a, para. 1).

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English