Five-Month Remission on the Cards for Schapelle Corby...

Prisoners in Indonesian prisons normally receive remissions twice a year, if they are lucky, on Independence Day and the prisoners relevant religious holiday (in this instance Christmas). Indonesian Independence Day is 17 August.

It is expected that Schapelle will be granted a 5-month remission on her sentence. The head of Kerobokan Prison, Siswanto, has said that he has sent his recommendations to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights stating that Ms. Corby has been well-behaved and has not violated any prison rules. It is usual practice that the Ministry rubber stamps the recommendations of the heads of the prisons making the recommendations.

In other words, it would seem that Ms. Corby will be five months closer to freedom within days. If her clemency appeal is successful, then it is likely that she will be significantly closer to freedom still.

To read the Indonesian take on the proposed Corby remission follow this link.

Schapelle Corby and Public Support in Australia...

This is but a short comment, perhaps some opinion infused, on what the latest survey figures say about support in Australia for Schapelle Corby.

Schapelle Corby is an Australian and a convicted drug smuggler. She is doing 20 years in Kerobokan Prison in Bali, Indonesia, for the crime she have been convicted of.

Her appeals have been up and down over the years. The final appeal reaffirming her 20-year sentence.

The intervening six years have been hard on her, and her family and supporters, but mostly they have been hard on her. Nevertheless, prison anywhere is no easy gig, it is not summer camp. The time will affect you. Schapelle Corby, if Dr. Philips (an eminent psychologist) is right, then hope for a full recovery from the psychotic depression that Schapelle Corby suffers from is unlikely. It is likely that she will get better once out of jail and consistently medicated, presumably in Australia.

Yet, it must also be noted that Dr. Philips stated unequivocally that she would be dead in months if she was not immediately repatriated to Australia for treatment. Time has shown this not to be the case. Schapelle is alive, being treated / medicated and surviving.

The mental illness that she suffers from presently is the basis for a clemency appeal on humanitarian grounds. The Supreme Court has considered this and sent it to the President for final determination. There is some conjecture about what might happen next. It appears from sources that a significant reduction in the 20-year sentence has been suggested (all off the record discussions). This reduction is not likely to be an immediate release, but would see Schapelle Corby released before seeing out half of the original sentence.

Now, onto the survey. Australian news organisations are reporting the results of a recent survey that 1 in 3 Australians think that Corby should be released from Kerobokan. It is worth pointing out that this equates to a mere 33% of Australians. By my reckoning, there is hardly widespread support for a release. This should embolden the Indonesian authorities to reduce the sentence but to not immediately release her. Quite simply, reducing the sentence but not releasing her is unlikely to create any sustained backlash or negative press for the Indonesians.

Even more startling is that the survey notes that only 1 in 10 Australians think she is innocent. This means that for those that want to see her released it is a simple case of "Schapelle has done more than enough time for the crime". In other words, guilty or innocent is no longer relevant, what matters is that she is released. She has been too harshly punished in proportion to the crime she has been convicted of.

The survey is a Nielson poll and interviewed 1400 people.

Getting it Wrong -- Should the Police Apologise?

It is good form to apologise when you make a mistake. However, to apologise, you must first acknowledge that you have made a mistake, then publicly state that you have made a mistake, and then say that very simple word, 'sorry'.

There is always two sides to any story. It would be interesting to see what the police's side of this story is because it must be good enough that it warranted the action that they took. Otherwise, there needs to be some disciplining taking place of the officers that allowed this case to go forward even after the mistake was identified and the realisation was made that this case would be dismissed.

The case is a simple one of over-zealous police failing to rectify a mistake once that mistake was identified. Lisa Maree Boersma, a swimwear designer and part-time model took a holiday to the US.

While she was there she left her car in the care of her boyfriend who just happens to be a bodybuilder. On her return from the US she found the drug squad police surrounding her car, a black BMW.

It turns out the drug police had discovered five one-kilogram bags of white powder and a kilogram of hydrophosphorous acid. To the over-zealous drug police this was already an open and shut case of commercial quantities of methylamphetamine.

This leads to an immediate arrest and charges of being a supplier. If convicted Boersma was looking down the barrel of 25 years in the slammer, bye bye and we will see you in your 50s!

In any event, Ms. Boersma spent 3 days in custody until she could secure bail. The police fought bail. And, to ensure that they could get bail overturned the police decided that they would expedite the powder testing process. The police were obviously very keen to put this beautiful young drug supplier behind bars as quickly as possible and for as long as possible. Nevertheless, this is where this case should have unraveled and the police called it a day.

The testing of the powder revealed that it was caffeine dimethyl sulfone. It sounds much scarier than it really is, but in essence it is nothing more than an over-the-counter caffeine supplement that bodybuilders use. Unfortunately, this is not where this case ended because the police decided that even though the supplement was one that can be legally obtained (red. not against the law to have it), they still needed to pursue this case and refused to drop the charges.

Ultimately, Chief Magistrate, Graeme Henson, of the Downing Centre Local Court took this out of the hands of the police and dismissed the case.

Ms. Boersma is now free to get on with her life. Unfortunately, she does not get to do this with an apology from the NSW Police Force.

Maybe it is time to see, read, and hear the police's version of this case. It would need to be good!

Thus endeth the sermon.

Pauline Hanson and Schapelle Corby...

Pauline Hanson must be having a moment where she feels she needs to get back into the spotlight seeing her last foray was something to do with not selling her house to a Muslim, and Woman's Day has decided that they would oblige. The only other newsworthy piece of gossip about Ms Hanson is that she has pledged her support to Tony Abbott over Julia Gillard. Now there is an endorsement that Mr Abbott must be looking forward to exploiting in the coming election campaign.

Of the myriad of issues that Ms. Hanson could have chosen to vent on, she has decided that it is time that prisoner transfer agreements (PTA) received her passing attention. Her particular target in this case seems to be none other than one of Australia's most well-known incarcerated citizens, Ms. Schapelle Corby.

The Hanson view is a simple one. If you are convicted of committing a crime overseas then you should do the time for that crime overseas. The logic being, why should Australian taxpayers foot the bill for your foreign crime sprees? Judging by the comments left in the Daily Telegraph there are quite a few people that agree with her.

Perhaps more interesting is that the Hanson view has been aired in none other than the Woman's Day. It was not all that long ago that this publication was publishing nothing but pro-Corby related articles. I wonder what happened on that front. Perhaps they are just airing an alternate view that is designed to drive more support to  Ms. Corby and her push for freedom. Then again...

After the recent rush on Corby related news in the press there has not been much printed in the immediate past. There has been no news of her state of mind, the state of her clemency bid, or her desire to have a child (in jail if she must). Maybe the old adage is true...no news is good news!

Crime In Singapore

Singapore is often promoted as a "fine" city with just about every little indiscretion resulting in a potential fine. However, it would seem that Singapore is just not producing enough bad boys and girls to warrant the continued construction of two more prisons within the Changi Prison Complex.

This sounds like Singapore would be a good place to live, particularly if you are interested in places with a low crime rate and seemingly a safe place live, work, and raise a family. The problem though, at least as it appears, is that Singapore has an aging population. Aside from not producing enough criminals to fill its prisons, Singapore may have to embark on a more aggressive approach to get Singaporeans to procreate or facilitate greater numbers of immigrants arriving in the island State.

There are just 11,768 prisoners in Singapore at the moment. This is apparently a ten-year low that is to get lower still. So, if the crime rate is projected to fall even further then the numbers of new prisoners coming into the system is likely to be a lot less than any new prisoners coming into the system. This falling crime rate is reflected in the statistics which show that crime per 100,000 people fell from 974 occurrences in 1997 to 696 in 2007. It seems that recidivism rates are also falling which means less former prisoners are returning to the system. The recidivism rate has dropped from 50% in 1997 to about 25% in 2005.

I was in Singapore a week or so ago. I have always felt particularly safe wandering around the streets of Singapore late at night or in the wee hours of the morning. I do not mind going to Singapore every now and then as a means of escaping the chaos that is Jakarta. It is nice to be able to take air-conditioned public transport like buses and the MRT, walk around on well-maintained footpaths, have cars stop at red lights and pedestrian crossings, and generally to be able to wander around without the "hey mister" thing following me everywhere! However, after a few days of order it is also always nice to get back to the chaos that is Jakarta.