Page 4217 - Week 13 - Thursday, 19 November 2015

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to an assessment undertaken by ACT Corrective Services, which will be specific to an intensive correction order. This intensive correction assessment will involve a report for the court which will explore, in greater depth than an ordinary pre-sentence report, a wide range of relevant factors designed to gauge an offender’s suitability and commitment to an intensive correction order.

An offender will have to comply with obligations imposed as part of the intensive correction order. A set of core conditions will apply to every intensive correction order. The core conditions alone are demanding and every offender will be subject to the supervision of ACT Corrective Services. The court will also be able to select further conditions to add to the order as appropriate.

In the event a court decides that an intensive correction order is an appropriate way of serving a sentence of imprisonment, the offender must give informed consent before the sentence can be imposed. An intensive correction order will impose a significant degree of personal responsibility on an offender and it is important that an offender should understand and accept that level of responsibility. This is particularly important given the serious consequences of breaching the intensive correction order.

The breach process is a significant change of approach for the territory and has been developed with the key principles of “swift, certain and proportionate” in mind, particularly in relation to breaches of conditions. The swift, certain but proportionate approach was highlighted in the review of intensive supervision orders in overseas jurisdictions undertaken on behalf of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate by the University of Canberra.

The approach was pioneered by Judge Steven Alm in Hawaii and has been adopted in other United States jurisdictions as well as jurisdictions in other parts of the world, due to its reported success in reducing the rates of recidivism. The breach process for the intensive correction order seeks to draw on the approach of Hawaii’s opportunity probation with enforcement program, known as the HOPE program, to provide a robust enforcement scheme.

An alleged breach of either core or additional conditions of an intensive correction order will be heard by the Sentence Administration Board as soon possible. The consequences of breach include a short suspension of the intensive correction order which means the offender will spend the period of suspension in full-time detention as a reminder of their obligations. A breach may also lead to cancellation of the intensive correction order and activation of the sentence of full-time detention.

If the offender commits a new offence which is punishable by imprisonment while serving an intensive correction order then the courts will be required by this act to cancel the intensive correction order unless it is not in the interests of justice to do so. In other words, there is a clear presumption that an offender will be sent to full-time detention in that event. Commission of a further offence should be taken as a clear indication that the offender is no longer suitable for an opportunity to serve that sentence in the community.


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