He has an active ministry in prison

Dr Gordon Moyes Superintendent Wesley Mission & Part of the Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership?

Bronson Blessington: was the youngest person to be sentenced to life imprisonment since the transportation ended in 1840.

CRIMES (SENTENCING PROCEEDURE) AMENDMENT (EXISTING LIFE SENTENCES) BILL

Second Reading

The Hon. Tony Kelly: (Minister for Rural Affairs, Minister for Local Government, Minister for Emergency Services, and Minister for Lands) The Government has continually stated that it would protect the community forever from never-to-be-released prisoners.

The Government has in the past amended sentencing legislation to make it perfectly clear that not withstanding the provisions of the 1989 legislation, in the case of a very small number of offenders where the courts had previously recommended that an offender should never be released, that recommended should be enforced.

A recent decision of the Supreme Court in R v Blessington has held that an offender with a section 13A application that was pending as at 8 May 1997 is not subject to the present rules for redetermination.

The decision also canvassed the possibility that Blessington (and by extension, any others who have not yet had their application determined) might now be able to appeal the sentencing court's recommendations that they never be released. They would therefore be excluded from the application of the current regime for redetermination of those never to released offenders.

The Government believes that the intention of the legislation past by this Parliament was clear.

We have sought advice from the Solicitor General, who has advised that there is some prospect of a successful appeal.

But the people of NSW, and the Balding family, deserve certainty. Both the Solicitor General and the Director of Public Prosecutions believe that the best way to deliver that certainty and remove ambiguity is through an appropriate legislative amendment.

This will ensure that the current regime works uniformly and that all never to be released prisoners will:

* not be eligible to have their sentence redetermined until they have served at least 30 years;

* if a non-parole period is fixed on a redetermination, the offender may not receive a fixed term; and

* that where a non-parole period is fixed on a redetermination, parole cannot be granted except where the offender is in imminent danger of dying (or is incapacitated to the extent that he or she no longer has the physical ability to do harm to any person) and has demonstrated that he or she does not pose a risk to the community.

The amendments proposed in schedule 2 ensure that section 15A of the Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999 applies to a 'never to be released' offender regardless of whether the non-release recommendation has been quashed, set aside, or called into question.

The amendments remove any possible ambiguity in relation to the application of the law in respect of any particular offender.

The Hon David Clarke: This bill, which is supported by the Opposition, amends the Crime (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 so as to overcome the effect of the decision given on15 April 2005 in the case of Blessington v The Queen, thereby achieving the Government's commitment to keep Bronson Blessington, and people like him, indefinitely locked up. The background circumstances are that in 1990 Bronson Blessington, then aged 14, was convicted of the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Janine Balding.

As a result in sentencing legislation passed in 1989, offenders serving life sentences could apply to the court after eight years for a defined sentence with a minimum and additional term. In more recent years amendments to sentencing legislation relating to inmates subject to a non-release recommendation have been introduced which provide that the period before which an application for a redetermination application could be made was at least 30 years.

When the Minister for Police, Mr Whelan, introduced the Sentencing Legislation Further Amendment Bill in 1997 he described Blessington as representing "pure evil".

Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes: I speak on behalf of the Christian Democratic Party on the Crimes (Sentencing Procedures) Amendment (Existing Life Sentences) Bill. These amendments seek to ensure that the current regime for redetermination of existing life sentences of "never to be released" offenders extends to all those offenders whose original sentences have not been redetermined, and applies to those offenders even if theoriginal non-release recommendations are now appealed. I commend the bill to the House.

I acknowledge that the Hon. Peter Breen knows more about Bronson Blessington than anybody in this Chamber because of his close professional association with him.

However, I take Beverly Balding's point that Bronson was capable of knowing the difference between right and wrong.

I took calls over a long period of time on talk back radio and I found not one comment from the community at large in support of Bronson Blessington's early release. By the age of 14 he had been sexually abused by four adult males, was a street kid, an alcoholic, a petrol sniffer, and basically uncontrollable. I have been informed on good, reliable authority from those who work within the prison system that when he became a Christian in 1990 his life very dramatically changed.

In his speech the member for Wagga Wagga, Mr Daryl Maguire, referred to some comments made by Beverly Balding, the mother of Janine Balding.

"Although Blessington was 14 (one month off 15 years of age), he was an uncontrollable child, and had been on the streets for quite some time before he and the others took part in Janine's horrific rape and murder. There is no excuse whatsoever for what they did, and they were all old enough to know right from wrong."

Over the past 14 years or so his Christian life has made Bronson and outstanding model prisoner. He has said that the Lord has led him to lead more than 580 Bible studies within prison yards, with an attendance well over 5,500 prisoners. I commend him on the step that he has taken to invite Christ into his life. Staff of mine from Wesley Mission, who go within the prison system, speak most highly of his complete change of life through his Christian commitment.

His Christian witness in prison will continue to be powerful witness of the power of Christ to change people. If Blessington is preaching to prisoners, I would encourage him to keep on doing so. But can he continue to be a Christian in gaol? That is what Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul, the apostles Peter and John, and a million other twentieth century Christians have done.

I wish Mr Blessington well in his continuing experience as a Christian within gaol. The Hon Dr Arthur Chesterfield Evens: The result is that if an appeal against this bill were made to the High Court by Blessington, the appeal would be ruled against, as occurred in Baker v The Queen.

It therefore falls to the member of this Parliament to override the courts if we will. That is a sad state of affairs. I do not believe I have sufficient knowledge to overrule the courts. I think it is extraordinarily arrogant of us to be voting on a bill such as this when we have heard not a thing from Blessington.

The Hon Peter Breen: Not a word.

The Hon Dr Arthur Chesterfield Evens: Despite these circumstances, we are asked to overrule the courts as if they are nothing. I repeat this is a sad state of affairs. If past this bill will retrospectively take away the right of this prisoner to have his sentence redetermined. We are overriding the courts. On what do we base any such decision? Not on serious knowledge, I put to the honourable members of this House.

No-one doubts the abhorrence of the events surrounding the death of Janine Balding, and no-one doubts that Blessington was guilty. I note the comments of the Reverend the Hon Dr Gordon Moyes, who spoke about the fact that Bronson Blessington has turned to Christ and that people within the gaol system have noticed an immense change in him.

I was rather surprised in that circumstance Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes did not say he would forgive Blessington. I had thought from the way the honourable member spoke that he might have come to that position. Indeed from my recollection of the Bible, Jesus Christ forgave sinners on the cross.

Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes did not express such forgiveness; rather, he pointed to public opinion expressed to him on talk- back-radio. My own view is that we should not act according to what is said on talk- back-radio. Our job is to lead the country, not follow opinions. We must be aware of opinions heard on talk-back-radio. If we are not, presumably that is at our own peril. We need to do better than that.

The Democrats oppose bills that operate retrospectively against individuals. I believe we do so without detracting from the suffering of the Balding family.

The Hon. Peter Breen: I speak against the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Amendment (Existing Life Sentences) Bill. All week I have been waiting for the Daily Telegraph to do a story on this bill, the object of which is to keep Bronson Blessington in gaol "forever", to use the word of the Attorney General in the other place. Certainly, that is the Government's intention.

Yesterday I thought the story appeared on page 17 when I read the headline "Dig deep to find the cure for a killer." To my surprise, the article was about heart disease, and seeking donations to the Peter Frilingos appeal.

The headline would have been appropriate for a story about the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Amendment (Existing Life Sentences) Bill because the Government is digging deep, in fact, that the ground under the Government's feet on this bill is too hot even for the law and order lobby.

The Daily Telegraph has not written one word on the bill. Bronson Blessington was no ordinary offender. When he murdered Janine Balding by drowning her in a dam at Minchinbury in 1988 he was 14 years old with the mental capacity of a 9 year old or 10 year old. His mental condition gave rise to a classic case of diminished responsibility, but the defence was never pleaded at his trial. -- a fact that the trial judge drew attention to in his sentencing remarks.

I wrote to Blessington's lawyers asking them why the defence of diminished responsibility was not raised, and they could not recall. Indeed, they could not recall any discussions about the issue of diminished responsibility.

The sentencing judge also observed that the mental condition affecting Bronson Blessington was a temporary disorder of adolescence, and that the boy had good prospects of recovery.

Indeed, the judge also observed that the boy was already making excellent progress towards rehabilitation in juvenile detention while he was awaiting trial.

Sentencing judges make those kinds of observations all the time. Sometimes they are prophetic; at other times what they predict turns out to be quite wrong. In the case of Bronson Blessington, everything the sentencing judge said turned out to be true. The boy recovered from his temporary mental disorder, he did well in rehabilitation and, as Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes pointed out, at age 17 Blessington converted to Christianity while he was still in juvenile detention. He studied by correspondence at theMoore Theological College.

Reverend the Hon. Fred Nile: He has a ministry in prison.

The Hon Peter Breen: He has an active ministry in prison. I cannot imagine anyone else being in a position to approach prisoners in the way he does. He goes out into the yard with his Bible and says, "Anyone for scripture?"

People gather around; it is an extraordinary ministry. Bronson Blessington is living proof that children who make mistakes literally grow out of their problems, that juvenile offenders can be rehabilitated and that giving people a second chance is a sentencing principle that lies at the heart of a justice system that evolved from a penal colony. These are the reasons the legislation before the House today did not get a run in the Daily Telegraph. [this week 5 May 2005].

Bronson Blessington was the youngest person to be sentenced to life imprisonment since the transportation ended in 1840.

Murder committed in New South Wales prior to 1990 carried a life sentence unless the trial judge was satisfied that mitigating circumstances significantly diminished the prisoner's culpability for the crime. In practice a life sentence did not mean natural life as a prisoner could apply to the Supreme Court after eight years to convert the life sentence to a fixed term.

Approximately 250 lifers indicted before 1990 have applied for fixed- term sentences to replace their life sentences, and so far 225 of them have been successful. In 1990 the average life sentence served for murder was 15 years.

As part of its tougher approach to crime and punishment, the Government changed the law in 1990. To what is called truth in sentencing legislation of 1989. Which came into effect on 12 January 1990. As a result of that legislation, a life sentence now means for the term of a prisoner's natural life.

I have a longstanding interest in Bronson Blessington and his convicted co-offender, Stephen "Shorty" Jamieson, who was a victim of foetal alcohol syndrome and a person who was almost certainly innocent of the crimes for which he stands convicted. It was a bizarre case of mistaken identity. Both Blessington and Jamieson have now served 16.5 years in prison.

The bill before the House is directed solely directed at Bronson Blessington, who made a successful application before Justice Dunford in the Supreme Court and judgement was delivered on 15 April 2005.

It seemed to me that this young man had paid for his crimes and deserved a second chance to give something back to society. Bronson Blessington was partly raised by his paternal grandparents, Mat and John Blessington, who were field officers for the Salvation Army.

Visiting the child prisoner, initially at the juvenile detention centres and later in the adult prisons, Mat Blessington and Jack Begnall became good friends, and today they are both resolute and forthright men -- even at over 70 years of age -- praying ceaselessly for the salvation of Bronson. The assistant pastor reminded me that Christianity is tailor made for prisoners, offering them hope. Jesus Christ himself was a prisoner, as Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes has pointed out. He was despised, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, and one from whom we avert our gaze, to paraphrase the prophet Isaih.

Jack said. "God forgives even the greatest sinners, and this is the liberating power of Christianity. Many prisoners who previously had no knowledge of God and led aimless lives find their liberation in prison through the gift of faith. I suggest to the assistant pastor that many inmates who have suffered injustice and oppression identify with the counter-cultural and revolutionary Jesus who lurks at the heart of Christianity."

Prosecution and defence lawyers have opposing tasks; one seeks a conviction and the other seeks an acquittal. Police assist the prosecution and play a critical role in deciding what will be investigated and how the evidence is presented to juries, for the most part, are kept in the dark about the bargaining that goes on between the prosecution and the defence over the evidence.

But when it comes to sentencing the judge, as sole arbiter of the fate of a prisoner, ought to have the benefit of all of the facts, and those facts ought to form the basis of the prisoner's sentence. That is one of the problems with Parliament deciding sentences. We have to do it in the context of a debate. How can we make a judgment about the life of a person without getting the facts?

A psychiatrist, Dr Clark said the youth suffered from "a conduct disorder of adolescence", a defined medical condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The psychiatrist concluded that the boy suffered from an abnormality of mind "which was present at the time of the offence" and "fits the criteria for a defence of diminished responsibility".

After quoting the report Justice Newman said, "I might add this defence was at no stage raised during the course of the trial". In the very next sentence he observed that the condition diagnosed by the psychiatrist is transient and the good doctor expected it to be resolved in time.

The Judge said, "On the basis of this Dr Clark held out the strong hope that the boy Blessington is capable of being rehabilitated". Then the judge referred to the reports from the Department of Youth and Community Services indicating Bronson had already made "excellent progress" in the juvenile detention centre while awaiting trial.

This was when Bronson was 17.

By God 21 May 05

Related:

Putting your Family First?

(This following link has now been removed from gov't website now updated 18 April 2009.)

The Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership

"Working in partnership not only has the potential to enrich people's lives but can also deliver tangible results for all Australians. Community and business partnerships are a driver to accomplish better outcomes than any group acting alone could achieve."

The Hon. John Howard, MP, the Prime Minister of Australia and Reverend The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC, MLC Superintendent Wesley Mission?

Photo Source: Reverend The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC, MLC Superintendent Wesley Mission from that site.

However, some of that material now posted on another website without the photos:

Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership

Related Links:

PETITION
To Her Excellency the Honourable Marie Bashir, AC, Governor of New South Wales. WHEREAS, under the Royal prerogative of mercy Your Excellency has discretion to grant a pardon to a convicted offender. WHEREAS, Bronson Matthew Blessington was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on 18 September 1990. At the time of committing the offence Bronson Blessington was a juvenile aged 14 years and he is the youngest person sentenced to life imprisonment in New South Wales since transportation ended in 1840.

Bronson Blessington: Testimony from my prison cell
Before my conversion in 1990 I was completely illiterate, extremely fearful of all adults due to the fact, I had been sexually abused by four adult males. I lived in a fantasy world, crying out for someone to love me and looking for somewhere to belong. By the age of 14 I was an alcoholic and a petrol sniffer and basically uncontrollable. I only write this so you have some idea of where I was at when God reached deep into my soul and washed me clean with the blood of Christ.

NSW Prisoner speaks out
Hello my name is Bronson Blessington. I am writing this letter to you in the hope that you will be able to give me some assistance. I have been in prison now for 15 and 1/2 years. I was given a life sentence when I was 14 years old.

QLD INDEFINITE DETENTION 'IN A NUTSHELL'

Queensland Labor Attorney-General Rod Welford 'Indefinite Detention'

In Queensland prison sentences have become step-by-step more lengthy over the last decade according to prisoner Mr David Minty who has been in jail for 20 years.

The introduction of new legislative policy to keep prisoners indefinitely can mean we are never to be released. These changes will have an effect on my sentence and I can now expect to die behind bars.

Because I have been unable to establish strong ties in the 'outside' community my category of prisoner will come under the proposed policy that will not be granted parole.

The Queensland Attorney-General Rod Welford has taken the unusual steps by taking sex offenders to court right at the time of their release and making sure the keys were thrown away.

There were others before, that during sentencing, the Attorney-General took 'leave' of the Sentencing Court and asked for an 'indefinite Sentence' to be handed down, and which a number of felons received. Both these categories of prisoners are 'locked in' to a regime of 'never to be released'.

Several more categories of prisoners are now being targeted.

Queensland defies U.N. conventions by retaining mandatory sentences of ' life means life' for the offence of murder.

Legislations increase the number of offences able to carry a 'life sentence'. One such legislation in the early nineteen-nineties was for a hardcore-drug offence and gave new meaning to mandatory but only for that category of sentencing.

Those convicted under that 'Act' were given 'mandatory life-sentences' and it did mean; never to be released from prison. That was repealed several years later.

It could be argued that news only carries reports of lenient sentencing or early release of felons and never shows that these circumstances are extremely exceptional and not usually the rule. The whimsical (or manipulative) policies of prison administration distort the 'long-term sentenced' prisoners' sentences.

My sentence plan history has been rewritten with little regard that it was an abuse of process and therefore unlawful to do so.

He says there are devices such as an 'Offender Risk Needs Inventory' a questionnaire that is in many cases implemented in a capricious and deceptive fashion; and with much secrecy; and my evidence is that my score dramatically rose in a space of 2 years without any good reason.

A judge obligated to hand down a mandatory sentence to a person convicted of murder has no discretion; legislation dictates there is no alternative other than handing down a 'life sentence'. This was once referred to as an 'Indefinite sentence' but became 'Indeterminate sentence' when the so-call 'Serious Dangerous Offenders Bill' was being enacted becoming a separate category where felons would be convicted under the 'Act' (Penalties and Sentences Act section 172) and be sentenced to a statute 'Indefinite Sentence'.

Where 'Indefinite' was reserved for the worst of the worst offences, the mandatory 'life-sentences' a judge delivered were hardly ever intended that the prisoner would not be granted parole after a considerable time. That is if the prisoner showed redeeming merits and was rehabilitated or habilitated (taught how to live).

'Queensland Community Corrections Board' (Parole Board) the authority who would give parole to 'long-term - sentenced' prisoners is in March 2005 closing down its 'Release to Work Centres' which used to trial prisoners as a staging-post before being paroled.

Elsewhere in the system 'Leave of Absences' have become almost nonexistent for prisoners to re-establish community ties. Once a prisoner could achieve a day leave program. 'leave' to be with family or a suitable sponsor for a day every month, near the completion of the custodial segment of a sentence. Now, there are very few prisoners on prison farms receiving ' leave' now, one only at the prison farm 'Numinbah'.

It is proposed that in June 2005 'Indeterminate sentenced' prisoners', generally the most changed and benevolent prisoners, will not be given parole if they don't have strong community ties such as family to go back to. Therefore disadvantaged prisoners who have lost all contact out in the community after 15 to 20 years have lost many opportunities and will 'fall through the cracks' buried, remain in jail, institutionalised, indefinitely.

It is cruel and unusual punishment (not having a sentence defined) and I am applying to the Supreme Court for relief (from being denied 'natural justice'), A previous action I took was heard on 31 October 2002, under the 'Penalties and Sentences Act 1992' Section 171(1)(a) ' Application to Review Sentence'. I attempted to point out to the court that 'Indefinite ' and 'Indeterminate' meant the same and instead of coming under an unaccountable parole board and that I should have the benefits of applying to the court as an 'Indefinite - sentenced' prisoner and have my merits weighed by a court.

Prisoners would not need to be seeking help or to have their 'rights' confirmed from a court if Queensland followed other States and set-up 'Merits Review Tribunal'.

I conclude with a bit of witticism and a degree of cynicism that the Queensland public can be assured that the public servants are ensuring that taxes are being increasingly spent on making a vast and monumental infrastructure and permanently banishing outcasts from society.

They're not afraid of the law as they believe they are the law, and often manipulate legislation, and will do what is necessary by stealth if need be.

Politicians have opted for the soft-option and have abandoned recycling - rehabilitation. It's all a bit like the 'Transportation' policy when Britain exiled the forefathers to this great free nation of ours, Australia.

By David Minty 16 February 05

In Other Developments:

KERRY O'BRIEN: Law and order has become the hobby horse of state politicians around the country in response to a public perception - rightly or wrongly - that violent crime is on the increase?

DR DON WEATHERBURN: Most of the error in judging crime trends comes from a general tendency to think crime is rising when it is actually stable or falling.

JUSTICE ACTION: Actually violent crime is not on the increase and statistics say its been stable over the last decades.

Now the Queensland Government has a law that would allow the indefinite detention of dangerous prisoners beyond their full sentence, if they're deemed to pose a threat to society on release.

JUSTICE ACTION: But more importantly if the QLD Department of Corrective Services fail to give the prisoners programs and instead punish the prisoners throughout the term of their sentence then the department failed the community.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: If you do the crime, you serve the time. But, in Queensland, that time may be stretched out indefinitely to prevent possible crimes in the future.

A 54-year-old multiple rapist, Robert John Fardon, is the first prisoner to face the Queensland Government's draconian pre-emptive imprisonment laws.

JUSTICE ACTION: What did the taxpayers pay for at $60,000 dollars a year for 14 years that's $840,000 dollars?

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The government wants him to remain behind bars, despite having completed a 14-year jail term.

JUSTICE ACTION: If you take your car to the panel beater to fix a damaged panel and they return the car to you written off do you pay for the repairs?

ROD WELFORD, QUEENSLAND ATTORNEY-GENERAL: At the end of the day, the balance we've struck is that it's safer to detain these people pending a review of their capacity to make it outside prison rather than everyone else in the community locking themselves up to protect themselves from them.

JUSTICE ACTION: But in the grand scheme of things the balance you struck was to make taxpayers pay you for your mistakes. In this case you had this person in your care for 14 years and ended up with a write off, after you've been paid to rehabilitate prisoners.

Then after you have failed to do your job you want taxpayers to continue to pay for your failures why? Why hasn't the standard of a human being been lowered in over 200 years? Have people suddenly developed bad genes and cannot learn?

PETER MCCUTCHEON: This radical new approach to crime prevention is under challenge, sparking a new debate about security and liberty.

CATHY PEREIRA, PRISONERS' LEGAL SERVICE: We think that this is a law that fundamentally undermines the criminal justice system in Australia and it's quite novel in the sense that, for the first time, it's asking the courts to make a guess about whether a person is going to commit a criminal offence in the future.

HETTY JOHNSTON, BRAVEHEARTS: What's happening here is we're just pussy footing around. If what we're trying to do is to protect the community, protect innocent children, then let's do it. And, if that means turning the law over on its head, then let's do that too.

JUSTICE ACTION: Yes but you don't protect the community by lowering the standards of a human being because the QLD Department of Corrective Services failed to implement proper programs in prison.

Why wasn't there an 'independent' inquiry to find out the facts of Fardon's incarceration? Was this man delivered the programs or was he blocked because of the Departments discrimination and treatment? So before legislation is radically changed and before we lower the standards of a human being we should have first found out the facts of his incarceration and what this man was offered in prison.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Earlier this year, the Beattie Government was severely embarrassed when it had to make an 11th-hour bid to ensure a notorious paedophile - Dennis Raymond Ferguson - was released from jail on the condition he report to police.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: At the height of the controversy, the Beattie Government announced new laws to detain the state's most dangerous prisoners'. Ten months later, with a state election in the offing, the State Supreme Court is being asked to apply these laws for the first time.

In some ways, Fardon is an ideal test case.The Supreme Court this week was told that on at least four occasions Fardon said he would kill or commit a crime to return to jail rather than face the daunting prospect of reintegrating into society?

But there's an added complication - the court has also been told Fardon was apparently a model prisoner, and today in court he apologised to his victims, pledging not to re-offend. Prison rights advocates say more resources should be put into helping prisoners settle into life outside, not locking them away.

CATHY PEREIRA: By warehousing one person or two people or perhaps a small group of people, that does not do anything overall for the community, to protect the community. If we're looking at community protection, then put the resources into the community.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: So you see it as a token gesture for political purposes?

CATHY PEREIRA: Absolutely. It's a token gesture.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The Prisoners' Legal Service says these laws are ultimately about trying to protect the government from embarrassment should a dangerous prisoner re-offend. Do you concede these laws are politically convenient?

ROD WELFORD: Well, it's not just the government that's embarrassed if serious violent sex offenders are released from prison and re-offend. We've had prisoners who've been released from prison and re-offended within weeks.

JUSTICE ACTION: Ultimately these laws are also about protecting the government from admitting their failure when they haven't provided any programs to the prisoners at $60,000 dollars of taxpayers money a year and in Fardon's case that ends up being $840,000 dollars? In addition to that the cost of keeping him in jail and many others indefinitely will be incredible,

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The Dangerous Prisoners Act requires the court to determine whether there's a high degree of probability of a prisoner re-offending. Criminologist and psychologist Dr Stephen Smallbone says, from a scientific perspective, that could be unworkable.

DR STEPHEN SMALLBONE, CRIMINOLOGIST, GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY: If we put everybody who is in custody at the moment in Queensland for a sexual offence against the child together, we could be fairly sure that a certain percentage of those will commit new sex offences.

The problem is that, if we just then look at that particular subgroup of high-risk offenders, we're going to get it wrong about 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the time.

ROD WELFORD: I know that there's a nice academic argument going on about the potential for prediction about whether someone will re-offend. But the people we're talking about already have a track record and commonsense and close interaction with these people will give people with skills the capacity to make a reasonable assessment, in my view.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Child rights advocates like Hetty Johnston from Bravehearts also have little time for the problems of predicting criminal behaviour.

HETTY JOHNSTON: We're saying there IS going to be a balance here and it's a risk - what if they don't re-offend, what if they do? In the balance is children and children's entire lives and families' entire lives and we say you have to balance that up in the best interests of the child, not in the best interests of the offender.

JUSTICE ACTION: But who's ultimately responsible for not delivering appropriate programs in prison? Who is placing children at further risk by not ensuring that prisoners get programs instead of punishment?

CATHY PEREIRA: We have to keep in mind that the only thing between ourselves and arbitrary detention is the law. If we undermine that, then it undermines the protection that is available to every citizen.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Whatever the Supreme Court decides, the debate will continue. Fardon's legal team has lodged special leave to appeal to the High Court, arguing the Queensland legislation breaches the separation of powers under Australia's Constitution.

ROD WELFORD: There's no doubt that any law that provides for the continuing detention of a person beyond the period of their defined sentence for a particular offence will be controversial and subject to legal debate. I'm happy for that legal debate to occur, and I'm happy for the matter to be ventilated in the High Court. The High Court ultimately will determine the outcome.

Related:

Indefinite detention means the government owns its citizens
A convicted rapist detained indefinitely in a north Queensland jail has lost a High Court appeal against his detention. Robert John Fardon was due for release more than a year ago but remains in custody under controversial Queensland legislation.

Tony still seeking release after half a lifetime inside
After serving imprisonment continually since February of 1956, because of his age 74, he suffers from high blood pressure, angina, has survived a mild stroke and two major strokes in the past few years, leading to mobility problems on gradients and he continues to have irregular heart problems.

'Lifers' swap cells for nursing beds
A MURDERER and a child molester each judged too dangerous to ever be free of the prison system have been paroled to ordinary nursing homes where other residents have not been told about their pasts. Child sex offender Phillip Adamson and murderer Percy David Bond, who were both in poor health, were moved in recent weeks. Both have spent more than 30 years in jail and both were sentenced under conditions that mean they will never technically be released.