The WA Justice Association (WAJA) was conceived by founders Tom Penglis and Julian Sanders following Tom’s release from Acacia Prison in April 2020. Motivated by the inefficacy and injustice he witnessed in the WA prison system, Tom sought to channel his discontent into positive action. Tom and Julian soon enlisted fellow law students to establish and launch WAJA, an organisation with the aim of reducing incarceration rates and improving outcomes for people coming into contact with WA’s criminal justice system.
By engaging these groups in collaborative and focused reform efforts, we aim to achieve our purpose by effecting law/policy reform and promoting engagement between students, social justice organisations and the legal community. Our vision is of a fair criminal justice system focussed on rehabilitation, which provides all Western Australians the support they need to turn their lives around, and where imprisonment is a genuine last resort. Critically, we envision an end to the gross overrepresentation of First Nations people in WA’s criminal justice system. Moving forward, we hope to further engage academics, students, lawyers and the broader community to help us achieve our mission.