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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (9 August) . . Page.. 2638 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

and to determine the best type of treatment for each offender. Offender rehabilitation has become a knowledge-based industry and we must recognise this expertise in legislation.

The government proposes to consolidate existing corrections legislation into one act, the first stage of which is this bill. The act will form the basis of a new model of correctional intervention, one that heralds a new approach to old problems and one that precedes and prepares the role of the ACT prison.

New legislation will provide for an integrated case management system in which the needs of individual offenders, as well as the risk each individual poses to the community, are identified at the earliest state of corrections involvement. A highlight of the new model will be a through-care system which will feature individual case management plans that determine the most appropriate rehabilitative treatment. The plans and treatment will be dynamic and will reflect each stage of the correctional system as the offender progresses through it according to their responses to the interventions provided.

Assessment, planning and evaluation are important features of each stage of the process from pre-sentence assessments through probationary supervision, work orders, programs, home detention, incarceration and parole. Interventions must be tailored to address those factors directly related to criminal behaviour. New sentencing and post-sentence rehabilitative options made available to the courts must allow the offender's assessed risk and needs to be matched to the most appropriate available option. Home detention will operate within this model.

Home detention, as proposed in this bill, will provide a further means of diverting offenders from full-time custody. Adult offenders eligible for home detention will have been either remanded in custody or sentenced to a period of imprisonment of 18 months or less. Young offenders eligible for home detention will have been denied bail or committed to an institution for not more than 18 months. Serious and violent offenders will be specifically excluded from the scheme. Eligible offenders will need to meet suitability requirements, including stable accommodation. Family members and other stakeholders will be consulted as to an offender's suitability for home detention.

Electronic monitoring and intensive supervision will be used to ensure compliance with curfews imposed under home detention. This involves the installation of a home monitoring unit in the offender's residence. Each offender will be required to wear a tamperproof wristlet or anklet that sends a continuous signal to the home monitoring unit. The unit can be programmed with a range of times at which the offender should be present or absent from the home. Any breach of these requirements will send an alert directly to a central monitoring computer. This, in turn, will signal an automatic paging system to the home detention officer for a prompt response.

The case management of offenders subject to home detention will be intensive, including surveillance and rehabilitative components. Offenders will be required to take responsibility for and actively participate in their rehabilitation. To this end, they will perform either paid or unpaid work and will attend educational or rehabilitative programs. They will also be required to submit to urinalysis drug screening and breath alcohol analysis. Sentenced adult offenders for whom a court has set a non-parole period and who are subject to home detention may be eligible for release on parole.

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