The community would be worse off if one of the ACT's therapeutic courts does not receive "immediate injection" of funds to reverse its hiatus and to re-prioritise rehabilitation because it costs more to have an offender in jail, a former ACT Bar Association president says as the territory's prisoner costs remain the highest in the country.
John Purnell SC, the former president, is calling for more resources for the ACT Supreme Court's Drug and Alcohol Sentencing List, established in 2019, after it stopped accepting new referrals.
