Supporting Justice update
Work is progressing well on the CIJ’s Supporting Justice project which, through two streams of work, aims to design better justice responses for people with a cognitive impairment and/or complex needs in Victoria.
In the first stream, the CIJ and its project partners, strategic design consultants Paper Giant, are developing an online resource for courts and legal professionals to ensure that least restrictive approaches are used in relation to people with a cognitive impairment, mental illness, autism spectrum disorder and/or dual diagnosis.
Earlier this month the project team began a series of interactive workshops involving magistrates, lawyers and other people with key roles in the justice system and with expertise around supporting people with disabilities. The workshops follow an initial stakeholder and system mapping phase and sit alongside a series of consultation and engagement activities (February to April 2019) that will help to define who the resource is for, what it needs to contain and how it will be implemented and assessed.
Supporting Justice workshop, February 2019 . Photo: Paper Giant
Co-design workshops and resource prototyping will continue throughout March and April and will focus on bringing together people with lived experience of disability and the criminal justice system, justice professionals and disability support sector professionals.
Already, contributions made in the workshop and earlier consultations have demonstrated the complexity and rapid change occurring in the disability support sector and the scarcity of resources available to justice professionals and individuals to navigate it. These findings are shaping the nature and design of the resource, which is due to be finalised mid-year.
The findings are also informing the second stream of Supporting Justice, a longer-term project which draws together stakeholders to identify opportunities for systemic reform.
Please contact Stan Winford for more information about these workshops and how to get involved.
