Magistrate Prowse Moves On

IT is with great sadness scone.com.au reports Magistrate Roger Prowse will no longer preside at the Scone courthouse and has ridden off into the great beyond.

Magistrate Prowse has decided to become the state wide relieving Magistrate.

His first stop is Broken Hill and there is always the chance he may ride back into Scone from time to time.

As the son of two school teachers Magistrate Prowse grew up moving around the state, starting school in Menindee, then Ashford, Lismore, Tumut and Wellington.

“In those days you were either a school teacher or a bank clerk to move around that much,” said Magistrate Prowse.

For this own career Magistrate Prowse said he considered following in his parents footsteps, but thinks he made the right move when he went into law.

“I would have made an appalling teacher, because I think my legendary patience would have deserted me very shortly after I started,” said Magistrate Prowse.

“The sort of academic interest I have is usually pursued at a University level as opposed to the school level; I’m a medieval historian type person and English medieval history was dealt with in first or second form for one or two weeks and the rest of the history they dealt with, whilst interesting wasn’t my field so to speak and consequently if I had gone further in that area it would have been pursuing academic studies instead of classroom teaching and that would have saved thousands and thousands of school kids having me inflicted upon them,” he said.

“Having worked in courthouses it seemed to be my first real paid job was in what was then called Magistrate’s courts more commonly known as petty sessions I worked my way up through the system to a certain degree, got a law degree and become a lawyer in private practice, worked for the legal aid commission, then back to being a lawyer in private practice,” he said.

“The judgements that I give are different to the judgements that the supreme court gives because they are in a different context.

“People are interested in the analysis and dissertation of the law in the supreme court and there it’s virtually one on one it is personalised and it is not a remote, removed process it’s called the local court because you are dealing with people locally in their local area and you need to make the law relevant to them and that’s what I try and do by giving them analogies pertinent to their own circumstances.

“Nearly all the points I try to make to people are directly related to their own particular circumstances, which is why if you know a few things about a lot of things then you can make a point relevant to the person.

“But the only way you could ever know that it worked is by never seeing them again, so it is proving something by its absence.

“If they bloke I gave the cattle analogy to last month never comes back A: I won’t know, B: I won’t get to know and C: who knows you’d have to go out and interview him again to see if it has any impact.

“Sometimes some things I do say does have an impact when I tell people to go away and get their car licence and they come back and actually produce it that’s the only measure of success that you actually get to see.

“Seeing people go through rehab and seeing them turn their lives around is good, that’s probably the only other measurable success but that is nothing to do with the court, it might be the instigator but the person has done it themselves,

“If you were a school teacher and you followed a kid from kindergarten to sixth form you can see those things occurring in front of you, you’ll see them down the street, you’ll see them move onto high school, then holding down jobs

“I only ever see the ones who keep coming back, so they are clear failures; from the courts point of view and from societies point of view if people keep reoffending not only is it multiple failure of organisations including the court so the ones I never see come back is good,” he said.

“There ought to be a rehabilitation unit at virtually every town that has a courthouse, now you might be able to say that Quirindi doesn’t need one or Scone doesn’t need one but Quirindi and Scone could share one, or Scone and Muswellbrook could share one because of proximity, but if society wants people locked up they also have to have prepared to have a correctional facility in their town and if society wants people to be rehabilitated they also need to have a rehabilitation facility in their own town, but it is chronically underfunded,” said Magistrate Prowse.

Another major change Magistrate Prowse would like to see is actively preventing people from drink driving.

“The panacea for drink driving is every car that is registered ought to have an alcohol detector in it,” he said.

“Just like when they brought in seat belts; seat belts weren’t there, they were made compulsory, everybody whinged, now they’re stock standard,” he said.

“There was a time when cars didn’t have radios and now they do.

“Ashtrays were a big thing in cars, but they are gone now, so the fact that they cost too much, history will show that the cost is amortised because if it is right across all cars, consequently the unit cost per vehicle is reduced due to economies of scale.

“Airbags are now in cars as stock standard and they ought to have something connected to the ignition so that if a person has consumed alcohol they can’t drive,” he said.

“It ought to be a stock standard unremarkable part of the car and as soon as you have those things in there the drink driving rate would drop dramatically,” Magistrate Prowse said.

Magistrate Prowse is also a champion for local court houses remaining local.

“Scone is a very nice place it is an attractive go ahead sort of town it’s the same as Quirindi is a nice place as well, it’s good that justice is available to people where they live as opposed to some distance away,” he said.

“It’s important that government services come to where the people are as opposed to the other way around,” he said.

“That’s why even though it is usually only two days a month it is important and the office being open is important so that people can have access to government services the same as they do in major areas,” Magistrate Prowse said.

As a relieving Magistrate his role will be to ensure local court houses remain functional for local people and occasionally he may return to Scone with his often colourful, typically poignant and distinctly personalised justice.

Magistrate Julie Soars will preside in Scone, commencing in February.