Before he started his postgraduate law degree, Mr Penglis had a “large hiccup” and was arrested, convicted and sent to prison on drug-related charges.

“I spent seven and a half months in prison before being released on parole. That experience really opened my eyes just to the extent of the injustices and the ineffectiveness of WA’s prison system in rehabilitating and treating prisoners, and also protecting the community in the long term by doing so,” he explained.

“When I got released from prison, I, with the help of my friend Julian Sanders, who is the co-founder, we started WAJA with a view to, I suppose, galvanising students and lawyers to advocate and research criminal justice reform by supporting existing organisations in the criminal justice space.”

After he was released, Mr Penglis was motivated to make a difference after noticing injustices within the system — and after becoming aware of his privilege.

“My dad’s a senior counsel over here in Perth. I had a very privileged upbringing, and that was evident through being able to have good legal representation when I was going through the courts, access to private rehabilitation services prior to, during, and after prison. And in various other ways. A lot of the guys, the vast majority of people in prison, don’t have that sort of privilege. In WA, still 40 per cent of people in prison are First Nations people.

“I suppose it really highlighted to me my privilege, how lucky I am, the fact that when I got out of prison, I would be able to just go, if I wanted to, I would just be able to go back into my normal life, go get a job, go live a happy life. But a lot of people don’t have that privilege, don’t have that freedom,” he said.

“That really stuck with me, living with guys in there who were from underprivileged backgrounds, hearing their stories, hearing how tough they have it on the outside, and the fact that they weren’t being given support so that when they got released, they had the same opportunities that I’m lucky enough to have. And that really made me want to do something when I was released.”

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As a result, Mr Penglis co-founded the WA Justice Association, or WAJA, of which Mr Thiele is an advocacy director.

“As advocacy director, I work with a team of seven students. What we do is we take the projects that WAJA has created, and we work with policymakers, politicians, stakeholders to bring about meaningful change,” Mr Thiele said.

“We have four teams. So, we have the projects team, which is the core of the association, and that’s two teams of students who work with a non-government organisation and a supervising lawyer, and they conduct in-depth research into a particular criminal justice issue.

“Some of the key projects that we’ve worked on have been on the Raise The Age campaign, as well as reform for the Criminal Law (Mentally Impaired Accused) Act. So what will happen then is that research is turned into a final deliverable for the NGO, and it will then eventually become a campaign with the advocacy team, and we’ll take those and work with stakeholders to create change in the justice system.”

The WAJA has approximately 35 volunteers, all of which are students who believe in “systematic reform,” something which Mr Penglis said was due to the “passion that exists within young people” — and law students in particular.

“Students, although we are busy at times, we do have more time than practising professionals. That’s the reality of it. And I suppose as well, it’s just a really good experience for students,” he said.  

“I think it’s important to instil a sense of social justice in law students so when they do become practising [professionals], when they do become practitioners, they enter the workforce with a profoundly social justice-oriented mind.”

And according to Mr Thiele, a lot of volunteers leave WAJA with a “definite perspective shift”.

“When I was first approached to join WAJA, I’d gone through two years of law school at the time, and yet I still didn’t know that the age of criminal responsibility was 10 years old. And what I find is that though you may study the law, it’s a lot harder to get a greater understanding of the context behind it. And that’s something I’ve learned, is that law can’t be practised in a vacuum. There is always something greater to consider when we look at everything at play.

“What we find is that in addition to the benefits that volunteers at WAJA receive, they are trained to work with various stakeholders or trained in various techniques that assist them in performing their role. A lot of our volunteers have gone on to take on associate-ships, have now finished up and are grads and solicitors at major firms. And a lot of them can attest to the success that WAJA has had in their career,” he added.

“One of the things we pride ourselves on at WAJA is that it is inter-varsity. We will have students from every single major West Australian university starting this semester. And we have built relationships with these universities. And one of the things that we like is that we’re able to draw on all the different strengths from the institutions. We recruit university students, and as such, it is necessary to build those relationships. And I look forward to seeing what students will have to offer in the future.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Tom Penglis and Steven Thiele, click below: