Recommendation 5 When sentencing a family violence offender to a community correction order, judicial officers should give particular consideration to attaching a judicial monitoring condition. Scheduling judicial monitoring hearings Currently, judicial monitoring hearing dates for a CCO are set by the court at the time of sentencing. A magistrate may, for example, set a judicial monitoring hearing date for three months following the commencement of a CCO. A number of stakeholders commented on the ineffectiveness of scheduling a judicial monitoring hearing many months after the commencement of a CCO, when offenders often struggle with compliance with their CCO in the first month. This is particularly the case for offenders released onto a CCO after an imprisonment sentence. Some stakeholders noted that, at this critical time, there is often little support. The Council is acutely aware of the risk to victim survivors when an offender is released from custody. Often, family violence offenders are released from custody to return to the home of the victim survivor. It is therefore critically important that family violence offenders are subject to a web of accountability so that they are supervised by Corrections Victoria and kept within the view of the court soon after release on a CCO. The Council’s Contravention of Community Correction Orders report found that the period immediately after a CCO commenced proved to be critical in terms of managing offenders’ risk of reoffending. Nearly half of offenders within the study group who contravened their CCO by further offending did so within the first three months of their CCO beginning (44%). Four per cent contravened their CCO with further offending in the first week, and 18% did so in the first month. Over nine out of 10 contraventions by further offending occurred within the first 12 months of commencement of the CCO (92%). Further, that report also notes that offenders sentenced to a CCO for breach of a family violence intervention order had a relatively higher rate of contravention
Recommendation 5 When sentencing a family violence offender to a community correction order, judicial officers should give particular consideration to attaching a judicial monitoring condition. Scheduling judicial monitoring hearings Currently, judicial monitoring hearing dates for a CCO are set by the court at the time of sentencing. A magistrate may, for example, set a judicial monitoring hearing date for three months following the commencement of a CCO. A number of stakeholders commented on the ineffectiveness of scheduling a judicial monitoring hearing many months after the commencement of a CCO, when offenders often struggle with compliance with their CCO in the first month. This is particularly the case for offenders released onto a CCO after an imprisonment sentence. Some stakeholders noted that, at this critical time, there is often little support. The Council is acutely aware of the risk to victim survivors when an offender is released from custody. Often, family violence offenders are released from custody to return to the home of the victim survivor. It is therefore critically important that family violence offenders are subject to a web of accountability so that they are supervised by Corrections Victoria and kept within the view of the court soon after release on a CCO. The Council’s Contravention of Community Correction Orders report found that the period immediately after a CCO commenced proved to be critical in terms of managing offenders’ risk of reoffending. Nearly half of offenders within the study group who contravened their CCO by further offending did so within the first three months of their CCO beginning (44%). Four per cent contravened their CCO with further offending in the first week, and 18% did so in the first month. Over nine out of 10 contraventions by further offending occurred within the first 12 months of commencement of the CCO (92%). Further, that report also notes that offenders sentenced to a CCO for breach of a family violence intervention order had a relatively higher rate of contravention
Swift_Certain_Fair_Approaches_Sentencing_Family_Violence_Offenders_Report.docx