We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and pay our respects to all Elders past and present, and to the children of today who are the Elders of the future.
Artist: Jasmine Sarin, a proud Kamilaroi and Jerrinja woman.
In a report tabled today, the NSW Ombudsman has called on the Minister for Corrections to respond to concerns that insufficient steps have been taken in due time to reform the inmate discipline system in response to the Ombudsman’s 2024 investigation.
‘The progress of NSW’s inmate discipline system reform’ report has been published under section 27 of the Ombudsman Act 1974. Reports under that section are infrequent and can be made only when the Ombudsman believes there has been an inadequate response to a previous investigation report and its recommendations.
In August 2024, Investigation into inmate discipline in NSW correctional centres identified systemic failures in how inmate discipline was managed across the state. While Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) responded to accept all 34 recommendations from this report, and showed positive progress in implementing them, that momentum has significantly stalled.
"Up until July 2025, we were receiving regular updates from CSNSW, and were satisfied with the response to our report and the actions it was taking to implement our recommendations," said NSW Ombudsman, Paul Miller. “We commend CSNSW in particular for expeditiously working to introduce a legislated internal review avenue in respect of inmate discipline decisions.”
"However, we have not received any further official updates since that time. This has coincided with the Government’s decision to introduce legislation that has lowered the standard of proof for all correctional centre offences – something we had explicitly recommended should not be done."
"Lowering the standard of proof does not address the failures that were raised in our 2024 special report, or the need for comprehensive review and reform," Mr. Miller continued.
"In our view, lowering that standard for serious correctional offences introduces a new injustice. Serious correctional offences, many of which correlate with criminal offences, carry significant punishments. These can include cell confinement and the banning of phone or in-person visits. Guilty findings also create an offence record, which will be taken into account in future parole decisions, potentially impacting the time an inmate will spend behind bars.
“Findings of guilt for serious offences with serious punishments on anything other than the standard of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ is, in our view, unjust and unreasonable, and inconsistent with the principles of a fair trial and the presumption of innocence.”
Court decisions in Canada and Europe have held that laws seeking to apply a lower standard to serious inmate discipline offences are contrary to human rights instruments applying in those jurisdictions. Neither NSW nor the Commonwealth constitution includes a similar human rights charter.
The Ombudsman’s new report emphasises that the problems identified in 2024 − such as inmates being charged with multiple offences for the same conduct, charges being laid for an inapplicable offence, or the recording of guilty pleas despite an inmate indicating that they contested the charge − cannot be solved by legislative changes to the standard of proof.
The Ombudsman has called on the Minister to confirm CSNSW’s stated commitment to ‘reform the inmate discipline process and ensure compliance with legal and procedural fairness requirements’.
In light of the new legislation, the report also recommends that, as part of this reform, further consideration now be given as to whether the standard of proof applied, at least to the more serious categories of offences, should be reinstated as ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
The Minister is now required to make a statement in Parliament responding to the Ombudsman’s concerns within 12 sitting days.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and pay our respects to all Elders past and present, and to the children of today who are the Elders of the future.
Artist: Jasmine Sarin, a proud Kamilaroi and Jerrinja woman.