offender

The jail term, one of the longest ever handed to a female offender in Australia, means Erin Patterson, 50, will be in her 80s before she can apply for parole.

The harm caused by these offences cannot be underestimated, and that was acknowledged in most of the conversations I had at the centre with offenders, staff and volunteers alike.

He said the operation - which sees shops team up with police to catch alleged thieves - targets repeat offenders as well as those who use violence and threats when stealing.

It comes after both government and opposition ministers criticised the council's plan to advise judges to seek extra information before deciding how to punish offenders from certain minority groups.

The Queensland offenders - two brothers and a woman who was at different times married to both of them - were people who were known to hold extreme anti-government, pseudo-law beliefs.