Page 4578 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 26 November 2019
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I outlined earlier the exceptions to the general parole time credit rule. The government has reflected the Canberra community’s views on offending in this bill with the exclusion from the general rule of repeat offenders of serious violent offences, including offenders who commit further family violence offences while on parole for previous family violence offending.
Murder, manslaughter, inflicting grievous bodily harm, threats to kill, torture, kidnapping, aggravated robbery and sexual offences are among the offences which, if committed whilst on parole for serious offending, will exclude the person from receiving the benefit of parole time credit. Reoffending of this type while on parole understandably invokes a community expectation of punishment and denunciation of the offender’s behaviour.
While the bill establishes a presumption against granting parole time credit to offenders who meet these exceptions, the court has been provided with discretion to apply parole time credit in appropriate cases where special circumstances exist. Whether special circumstances exist will be a matter for the court. The inclusion of this discretion recognises that there may be cases where the nature of the further offending or the subjective circumstances of the offender should not necessarily preclude recognition of a prior period of compliance with parole obligations—for example, where there has been a lengthy period of compliance, the new offending is less serious or of a different nature to the original offending, or other circumstances exist which make it appropriate to recognise the time spent on parole as parole time credit.
In addition, offenders who commit fresh offences within three months of their release on parole are subject to the presumption against receiving parole time credit. Including this exemption in the scheme creates a further incentive for offenders to comply with parole obligations in the immediate period after their release, thereby giving themselves better chances of completing the parole period in the community.
The scheme created by the bill will make offenders think twice about engaging in further criminal conduct by making them subject to a presumption against parole time credit in particular circumstances when on parole for serious offences or family violence offences. The scheme promotes rehabilitation by crediting offenders for the time spent in the community in compliance with parole conditions.
This bill is an important step in bringing the territory’s sentencing framework into line with other Australian jurisdictions and responds to the Australian Law Reform Commission recommendation in the Pathways to justice report regarding parole schemes in a considered and localised fashion.
The ACT government is committed to reducing recidivism by 25 per cent by 2025. Research by the Australian Institute of Criminology has found that parole supervision reduces the risk of reoffending. Evidence from other Australian jurisdictions suggests that introducing parole time credit in the ACT will play an important role in reducing the number of offenders being institutionalised in the AMC, but, more importantly, will see detainees value the privilege of active participation in pro-social rehabilitative
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