We have included a submission on the changes to the Criminal Records Act.
Perhaps what is most disturbing in terms of the provisions.... Many members of this committee have children and grandchildren, as do I. One effect of the amendments will be when someone is convicted of a summary offence. It could be that a person gets a little drunk on a stag night or at a university celebration and punches someone and is convicted of common assault. It could be that it's a conviction on a drug offence. There's an entire raft of things that young people may commit in the immaturity of young adulthood, which they live to regret and they live to overcome. They go to university. They seek employment.
At the moment, we have provisions for a pardon after three years. It's in fact more than three years, because the backlog actually takes about a year and a half. It's already close to five years before young people, who have in fact demonstrated the ability to put this behind them and are ready to take their rightful positions as responsible and accountable members of society, are back in the workplace without criminal records. I don't know why, but this act extends it from three years to five years.
There is no demonstration that the pardon process has in fact been flawed. Ninety-six percent of them have never been revoked. I again ask: Why as legislators would you want to put impediments on the reintegration of people who have in fact started out afresh and demonstrated that they are accountable for their actions?
There is no rational or legitimate correctional reintegration purpose. As in so many of the provisions of this bill, the only purpose is to increase the intensity of punishment and have more people in prison for longer periods of time under more repressive and harsher conditions. When they do get out or finish their sentences, it makes it even more difficult for them to reintegrate.
It seems to be the theme of this legislation. It is contrary to what is happening in many parts of the world, where we've learned the lessons of repression and harsh sentencing regimes. Texas, of all places, is rolling back what we're implementing.