Supporting Justice website now live!
Supporting Justice is a website that provides practical resources for court and legal professionals to better respond to people with disability in the criminal justice system
The CIJ has created supportingjustice.net to support court and legal professionals, as well as people with disability and their supporters, to promote the use of less-restrictive options for people with disability in the criminal justice system.
The website provides resources to:
- enhance the likelihood that people with disability in contact with the criminal justice system are given access to least restrictive interventions and are connected to more appropriate support
- increase the understanding of lawyers, court staff, judicial officers, broader criminal justice and disability support system workers around least restrictive options available
- increase the investigation, promotion and engagement of least restrictive options for people with cognitive impairment by courts, legal professionals and other stakeholders in the criminal justice system
- provide information and tools to criminal justice system workers and people with disability about the NDIS
Website features include:
- Personal stories of people with disability and lived experience of the criminal justice system
- Facts and statistics to help legal and court professionals recognise the signs of disability
- Practical guides and downloads to support awareness of disability and less-restrictive options for people with disability in the criminal justice system, including the promotion of the NDIS, support pathways and therapeutic courts
- Quick access contact details of services and programs appropriate to achieving less restrictive options for people with disability in the criminal justice system
Funding for the website was provided by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) through a National Disability Insurance Scheme Information Linkages and Capacity Building grant. CIJ partnered with design firm Paper Giant to develop the online resource and incorporated and demonstrated systems practice and design thinking principles into its development.
Website development activities included a number of co-design sessions which brought together magistrates, lawyers and senior policy makers with people with cognitive disabilities and lived experience of the criminal justice system. The co-design and design thinking activities uncovered a number of issues that have informed the broader Supporting Justice project and reaffirmed the value of having voices of people with lived experience at the centre of systems practice work.
The website forms part of CIJ’s broader Supporting Justice project. Supporting Justice is a systems change project working with people with lived experience and key stakeholders from the criminal justice and disability service systems to address the over-representation of people with disability in the criminal justice system.
The resource was delivered to DHHS in July and is a responsive website accessible at supportingjustice.net. Planning is underway for the resource to be formally launched in the coming months.
For more information, questions or feedback on Supporting Justice and the online resource, contact Michael Haralambous on Michael.haralambous@rmit.edu.au
