The Queensland Sentencing Information Service (QSIS) is one of the most popular and respected digital services provided by the QLS member library, Supreme Court Library Queensland (SCLQ).
The day-to-day running of QSIS is performed by SCLQ Judgments Services Officer Fiona Young.
We spoke with Fiona about her important work managing the QSIS database. She has been with Supreme Court Library Queensland (SCLQ) since July 2015 and has a background in legal libraries.
What is QSIS and why is it important?
Fiona: The Queensland Sentencing Information Service (QSIS) is an online resource of sentencing information assisting with the administration of the criminal justice system. The aim of QSIS is to enable consistency in sentencing by making it easy to search and compare Queensland sentencing outcomes.
QSIS contains sentencing statistics and graphs as well as a collection of full-text sentencing remark transcripts. As the leading source of sentencing, appeals and related information in Queensland, QSIS is available free of charge to eligible subscribers.
How many sentencing records does QSIS contain?
Fiona: I’ve just added the 100,000th sentencing record to QSIS. Data has been added to QSIS since around 2000, but I’ve been responsible for adding the information since 2015. I really appreciate that my work substantively contributes to the fairness of the justice system. Legal practitioners have come up to me during conferences to tell me how much QSIS has helped their clients. Nothing’s better than hearing about that.
Who can have access to QSIS?
Fiona: Access to QSIS is restricted by state law because the database contains a lot of private information, especially in the sentencing remarks. There are two levels of access – basic and full. Basic access includes all the statistical information and full access provides access to full-text sentencing remarks.
Both types of access are available to anyone who assists with the administration of the criminal justice system, however, eligibility requirements apply, as dictated by the legislation which governs the use of QSIS. You can apply for access at sclqld.org.au/qsis or email me at qsis@sclqld.org.au if you have any questions.
Free services at your law library
Did you know the library’s experienced legal researchers can undertake legal research for you or supply you with a requested document? QLS members can get up to 30 minutes of free research assistance and can request up to 10 free documents every day.
For more information, visit the library or go to sclqld.org.au/information-services.
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