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Paying the Price . . Page.. 428 ..

Mr Speaker, in December 1991, the ACT Corrections Review Committee published a report following its review of adult correctional and juvenile justice services in the Australian Capital Territory. This report, entitled Paying the Price, contained some 88 recommendations intended to enhance justice services in the Territory. Agencies, and indeed the former Government, can be commended that a significant number of recommendations made by the committee have now been introduced. These include the establishment of the Corrections Liaison Committee; the construction of new remand and committal facilities for juveniles; the introduction of amendments to the Children's Services Act 1986, to allow ACT juveniles who commit offences in New South Wales to serve their sentences in the ACT; and the renegotiation of the agreement between the ACT and New South Wales governments for the custody of ACT prisoners in New South Wales gaols.

However, there is still some way to go before other key recommendations of the report, particularly those relating to the expansion of community-based orders and the development of appropriate custodial facilities, are implemented. The Government is committed to taking action in these areas. New sentencing and prisoner release options are being examined in the context of the comprehensive review of relevant legislation that will be available for consultation with affected agencies later this year. The introduction of periodic detention as a sentencing option represents an important first step in the review and expansion of existing options available to the courts. The present Bill will also bring the ACT into line with New South Wales, which operates 11 periodic detention centres at the present time. Periodic detention will involve convicted offenders attending at the detention centre from 7.00 pm on Fridays until 4.30 pm on Sundays, for 12 to 104 consecutive periods, as determined by the court - a period being two days. This means that the obligation of the offender to the court can vary from three months up to two years. Detainees will have been determined by the court to be suitable for participation in the program.

In making this or any other order, the court is obliged to have regard to some 22 matters as set out in section 429A of the Crimes Act 1900. Some of these matters include the nature and the circumstances of the offence; the probable effect that any sentence or order under consideration would have on any of the person's family or dependents; the prospect of rehabilitation of the person; and the deterrent effect that any sentence order under consideration may have on any person. Whilst in periodic detention, under the supervision of Corrective Services officers, it is intended that detainees will undertake unpaid work for the community. This work will allow offenders to make a positive contribution to the community affected by their offences. It is also intended that detainees on periodic detention orders will participate in educational programs designed to address the causes of their offending behaviour.

I might mention, Mr Speaker, that the Government will also be putting forward an amendment to this legislation - which is not presently available in the Bill but will be introduced during the detail stage - which will have the effect of allowing a court to suspend all or part of a sentence of a person coming back before it in the case where a periodic detention order is cancelled by virtue of, for example, a failure to turn up at the centre. It is the Government's view that that option needs to be provided to ensure that people are going to have longer sentences of imprisonment imposed on them than would otherwise be the case.

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