President Harry warmly welcomed everyone, especially the following guests; Dr John Paget (Speaker), AG Ward Pollard (RC Mosman), Maj-Gen Tim Ford, Eric and Jane Pearson (Gosford), Christabel Wescombe, Tony Travers, Liz Clarsen, Chris Grant.
Reports and Announcements
Pres Harry is keen to find a volunteer to take over the task of managing the function of ClubRunner for the Club. Assistance would be provided and anyone wishing to take this task should contact Pres Harry.
PP Tania reminded members to contact her for any new meeting badges.
PP Jenny reported on the successful Arts Awards on Friday 11th August – over $1000 was received at the door and more likely from sales of the pictures. Jenny also asked for those who have not paid yet for the catering ($20) to contact her.
PP Lindsay reported on his experience in the Rolex Fastnet Yacht race. He indicated that around 370 yachts raced. He was on Kialoa II (owned by Patrick Broughton) and finished around 60-70th place. As always, his description of the 605 nm race which started in Cowes, then around Fastnet Rock (off Southern tip of Ireland) and ended in Plymouth, was not only excellent but gripping and detailed.
Maj-Gen Tim Ford then informed the Club that the Peace Keepers Memorial in Canberra is close to finished. This Memorial will commemorate the significant contribution made " in the service of peace" by over 80,000 Australian peacekeepers – military, police and civilian – to more than 60 United Nations and other international peacekeeping missions since 1947. The dedication and commemoration will be on 14 September 2017. He also reported on his daughter, Sophie Ford, who was the Club’s first Rotary Peace Fellow, and who is working with UK Oxfam in Yangon, Myanmar, especially concerning the plight of the Rohingya.
AG Ward Pollard then introduced himself as the new AG to our zone and looked forward to increasing collaborating on projects. He also spoke as the Chair of the RYPEN Committee, he encouraged the Club to nominate year 9-10 students to a RYPEN workshop.
PP Tania asked to members (and invited guests) to volunteer on the Rotary Fair, especially on the BBQ, Photo Booth and the Rotary raffle.
Our Exchange Student, Ken Bore from Basel, Switzerland reported on his past week which included a visit to Barangaroo, receiving a year-full membership to Bluefit (courtesy of Todd McHardy) and meeting other Exchange students.
Sergeant’s Session
PP John Norris acted as Sergeant and fined virtually everybody including our returning overseas Members (Robyn, James and Lindsay), our poor President over his leg fracture, recent birthdays (Tania and Robert) and Roger and Christabel’s anniversary. Other fines, whether fair or not, were accepted in the usual positive way.
Speaker
PP Frank then introduced our Speaker, Dr John Paget, who has had positions as Assistant Commissioner in the NSW Dept of Corrective Services, CEO of the South Australian Dept for Correctional Services, and Director of the Alexander Maconochie Centre project in the ACT.
John Paget started by providing a snapchat of the prisoner profile. For example 30% of males had been placed in care as a child, 52% have no school qualifications, 10% are illiterate or innumerate. The long list of social, family, economic, educational, mental, unemployment, homelessness and other risk factors provided the backdrop against which John Paget was able to emphasise the need for new prison policies.
He stated that the state government's planned and ongoing expansion of the prison system is a "very expensive failure" that puts NSW on the wrong side of history. In the face of record prisoner numbers and overcrowding, the government will spend $3.8 billion over four years on new prisons, including 7,000 new beds. Apparently this is twice the amount being spent on building new schools yet NSW now has the worst recidivism rate of all states.
He stated that building prisons is "remarkably ineffective" in deterring people from crime or keeping the public safe yet the government didn't seem to care., "Using evidence at the basis of penal policy is not being soft, it is simply being smart." John Paget spoke about the negative aspects of Radio Talk-back which created “community expectations” of incarcerations and harsh sentences as answers to crime prevention.
He said the eye-watering expenditure "represents an absence of political leadership and imagination to conceive of what an alternative approach might look like". In stark contrast to NSW policy, political will in the US and UK has seen a move away from a "lock 'em up" culture.
In 2014-15, 46 American States enacted 200 bills to reform prison systems and many states legislated that public policy must be informed by evidence. For example in California found that reductions of 20% in jailing between 2006 and 2012 resulted in a 25% reduction of crime.
John Paget indicated that the US has retreated from its incarceration binge in the 1990’s partly because it can no longer afford it. Similarly, the UK has committed to base all future penal policies on solid evidence. For instance, introduction of holistic social policies which raised household incomes by 10%, resulted in 18% reduction in crime.
John’s excellent presentation was much appreciated. The Q and A at the end of his talk touched on the problems of politicians being interviewed on Radio Talk-back, the use of ankle bracelets for tracking prisoners on parole, and examples of successful holistic policies introduced in New York.
PP Jenny formally thanked John Paget for his presentation.
President Harry added his appreciation, indicated that 15 Rotarians and 10 guests had attended and in closing the meeting reminded people to attend next week to hear PP Roger Wescombe interviewing Rtn Pat Price.
Scribe: PP Martin