Page 4577 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 26 November 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
three months of their release on parole. The bill also provides a discretion for the court to apply parole time credit to offenders who fall within those exceptions if special circumstances exist.
Additionally, the bill sets out detailed methods for the calculation of parole time credit and includes provisions addressing how parole time credit will be applied when an offender commits a new offence in another jurisdiction while subject to a parole order made or registered in the ACT. The bill ensures administrative certainty in the application of the scheme by requiring the court and the Sentence Administration Board to state on the warrant, notice or order committing the offender to custody the date at which parole time credit stopped, and it includes transitional provisions which ensure that parole time credit will be available to all offenders who, on or after the commencement date, are on parole or who are in custody awaiting sentence for a new offence committed whilst on parole.
The practical effect of the bill is to ensure that, in general, if an offender’s parole order is cancelled more than three months post release from custody but before the parole period has expired, the time the offender spent in the community in compliance with the conditions of their parole order is counted towards their remaining sentence. I will explore exceptions to this rule shortly.
The scheme established by the bill is in contrast to the current parole system, which provides little incentive for parolees to comply with parole conditions and severe punishment for what can at times be minor or administrative breaches of parole conditions. The current punitive approach operates as a disincentive for some offenders to even make an application for parole, thereby decreasing offender engagement with rehabilitation programs, increasing the prison population and leading to people being released from prison without any form of structured supervision.
The punitive effect of the current approach is amplified when an offender is subject to a long parole period and a breach occurs towards the end of that period. The offender’s sentence is then effectively extended and the offender is removed from the community for longer than intended by the sentencing court. This defeats the very purpose of parole and diminishes the incentive for non-offending. Not counting time served on parole towards the overall sentence creates manifestly unjust outcomes.
Inevitably, incarceration leads to a disruption in a person’s life, including loss of employment and potentially a loss of housing, relationships and social supports. We know that a release from prison without support to transition back into the community can lead an offender to a cycle of reoffending and ultimately poorer community safety outcomes. While on parole, an offender remains under sentence whilst being supported in their reintegration back into family life, employment or education and the continuation of programs begun in custody.
This bill supports the purpose of parole by creating an incentive for offenders to apply for parole without the associated fear that failure will inevitably lead to an increase in the overall time they spend serving a sentence. The bill introduces a scheme which recognises time spent on parole in compliance with parole conditions and rewards the positive actions of parolees towards rehabilitation.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video