Page 3837 - Week 12 - Thursday, 30 October 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
I am pleased to present the Crimes (Sentencing) Amendment Bill 2014 this morning. The bill is the first part of a two-stage process to repeal periodic detention. The decision to repeal periodic detention will bring the ACT into line with other states and territories who have used and dispensed with periodic or weekend detention for a range of reasons. In the ACT these reasons include the limitations of the sentencing option to effectively offer programs of rehabilitation and the significant challenges involved in safely managing offenders with different classifications and protection status.
The bill will introduce changes to sentencing in the territory by limiting the extent to which ACT courts may impose periodic detention as a sentence of imprisonment for a criminal offence. In doing so, it marks the first step in abolishing periodic detention altogether, as announced by the Minister for Corrective Services on 31 March this year. It also marks the first step in reviewing sentencing in the territory as part of the government’s recently announced justice reform strategy.
The bill changes the circumstances in which periodic detention will still be available in the short term in three main ways. The first main change is to the way that combination sentences may be imposed, by removing the ability of the courts to impose a sentence of imprisonment that combines full-time detention and periodic detention. This is necessary at this point in order to bring about the end of periodic detention in a timely and controlled way.
At present, on occasion, the courts impose sentences of imprisonment that mean an offender spends time in full-time detention at the Alexander Maconochie Centre first, followed by further time of imprisonment to be served as periodic detention. The result of this is that there are already a small number of offenders whose sentences mean that they are not due to complete periodic detention until 2017. Removing this combination of sentences of imprisonment will keep the number of offenders still serving periodic detention at that time to a minimum.
The second main amendment proposed by the bill is to limit any sentence of imprisonment to be served by way of periodic detention so that the sentence must end before 1 July 2016. This limitation will apply whether periodic detention is being imposed as a standalone sentence of imprisonment or as part of a combination sentence. This means that the closer a sentencing exercise takes place to 1 July 2016, the shorter the period of imprisonment that may be served by way of periodic detention. The purpose of this provision is, again, to ensure a timely end to periodic detention.
The third main feature of this bill is found in the transitional provisions which will apply the amendments to offences sentenced, or resentenced, on or after the date the bill commences. This aspect of the bill has been given particularly careful consideration as it potentially raises human rights implications, and I refer the Assembly to the explanatory statement to the bill for the detailed consideration of these human rights.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video