The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) noted that Community Justice Panels in Victoria emerged from Aboriginal community discussions concerning the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the justice system. The concept was developed into a proposal by the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service in 1987. In response, the Victorian Government allocated initial funding towards establishment of the Aboriginal Community Justice Panel (ACJP) scheme in 1988.

At the time of the Royal Commission, ACJPs were running in several locations across Victoria, with the Echuca ACJP providing a shining example of the scheme’s potential to reduce incarceration rates and improve outcomes for Aboriginal people in contact with police.

The RCIADIC noted that the level of resourcing was seriously limiting the overall success of the scheme, with effectiveness in each locality conditional on the personal resources that volunteer ACJP members were able to bring to their engagement.

At the launch of Burra Lotjpa Dunguludja in 2018 the Attorney-General committed funding to expand the ACJP to five additional locations, to bring the number of ACJPs across Victoria to 18 by 2021–22. In response to a coronial recommendation arising from the Inquest into the Death of Tanya Day, a review of the ACJP service model was conducted to explore program enhancements, including stakeholder roles and responsibilities, and resourcing.

The Victorian Government’s decision to de-criminalise public drunkenness and replace it with a health-based response, also required consideration of the potential role of ACJPs in the response.

Key findings outlined in the 2022 final report from the ACJP Review:

• Small numbers of ACJP members limit the ability of panels to respond to notifications. Of the five sites examined in the review, the largest panel had four volunteers, the smallest had one and most only had two volunteers. This limited services in two ways. Firstly, by placing an enormous load on volunteers. In one site averaging ten notifications per week, each response could take many hours. Secondly, some Aboriginal people in custody want to be supported by someone of their own gender, which was often not possible with a limited pool of volunteers.
• The existing operating model exposed the ACJP and its members to significant and unacceptable risks. There were no clear policies or procedures, and members worked out how best to deliver services according to their regional circumstances and personal preferences. The review highlighted the importance of the ACJP receiving resourcing and other supports required to safely deliver their services.
• The ACJP is well-placed to deliver high-quality services. Members’ knowledge of community and culturally appropriate services within it mean that they can deliver services that few other organisations are set up to do. However, under resourcing, absence of a clear and widely understood operating model and lack of status in the eyes of other organisations limits their ability to fulfil their potential.
• The potential role of the ACJP in the health response to public drunkenness would be limited by these same factors. It is important that the ACJP, as it functions now, is not expected to meet the expected gap in services for this group.

The 2022 Final Report of the ACJP Review included 15 recommendations, in order of importance, with the first being that the ACJP be funded appropriately, and the fifth being to transition the ACJP from a volunteer workforce to a professional team.

Final Report of the Review of the Aboriginal Community Justice Panels

Between 2017 and 2020, a total of $1,246,910 was provide by DJCS, or approximately $415,630 per year to operate ACJPs in thirteen locations across Victoria. This equated to $32,000 per site per year.

The Review accessed notification data from VALS for April to June 2020 showing that VALS received notifications about 3,049 instances where Aboriginal people were in custody. However, the ACJP did not always receive a notification from Victoria Police of these instances. According to VALS dataset, an ACJP was running in 30% of the areas where these notifications occurred. Overall, ACJPs delivered services to 19% of the total population of Aboriginal people in custody across Victoria for the three-month period examined, which means it could be a much bigger player in terms of keeping Aboriginal people in custody safe.

The 2022 Final Report of the ACJP Review found the ACJP had operated for decades on limited funding while trying to deliver a place-based service across Victoria. The time and human resources required to deliver such a service were significant therefore, funding for the ACJP needed to be equally significant. The proposed future structure should include a central, state-wide team to coordinate high-level functions of the ACJP, with ACJP Site Managers managing service delivery at their respective sites. The proposed budget for the ACJP was estimated to be $4,663,000 per annum (at a minimum) for 13 sites and expected to increase commensurately if the program were to expand to a new site.

It was recommended that:

The ACJP be funded appropriately to create its own community-controlled organisation with dedicated resources to deliver on its purpose: to ensure the safety and welfare of Aboriginal people in custody across Victoria.