Extended Supervision

Extended supervision is aimed at managing long-term risks posed by child sex offenders in the community.

An extended supervision order, imposed by the Court, allows the Department of Corrections to monitor child sex offenders for up to ten years following their prison sentence.

What is it for?

Sexual offending against children must stop. One way of helping achieve this is to identify those people at risk of further sexually offending against people under 16 years of age, and work with them to help stop these sexual offences occurring. Being able to monitor a person’s activity or location over a longer period of time reduces the likelihood of that person being in a situation where they are at risk of sexually offending.

Who is eligible?

The Department of Corrections can apply for, and the courts can impose, an extended supervision order on a person who has been:

• convicted of a relevant sexual offence and sentenced to a finite term of imprisonment, and
   
• assessed as having a real and ongoing risk of further sexual offences against those under 16 years of age or with a significant impairment.

Relevant sexual offences include:

• specific sexual offences involving victims less than 16 years of age
   
• pornography offences involving persons under 16 years of age
   
• sexual offences against a person with a significant impairment.

Such people are eligible whether they are currently:

• in prison, or
   
• in the community and subject to parole or release conditions.

What happens?

If an extended supervision order is imposed on someone by the court, that person will be actively monitored and supervised by the Department of Corrections for a time specified by the court (up to ten years).

Under an extended supervision order, a person would be subject to requirements similar to parole beyond the length of their original sentence. This means a person subject to a extended supervision order:

• will have to report to his or her probation officer regularly
   
• may be obliged to attend treatment programmes and counselling as directed
   
• will be subject to constraints as to their residence and employment
   
• will be subject to restrictions on contact with their victims and with people under the age of 16.

Special conditions

A person subject to a extended supervision order can also be made subject to various special conditions, which may be imposed by the New Zealand Parole Board on application by the Chief Executive of the Department of Corrections or a Probation Officer.

This may include restrictions on places they can go, or activities they can do.

The highest-risk people may be placed under home detention-like conditions for the first 12 months of the order, and electronic monitoring may be imposed.

A few extremely high-risk offenders may be monitored by another person for up to 24-hours a day for the first 12 months of the extended supervision order.

Breaching

A person subject to a extended supervision order can be charged in court for breaching their conditions and, if convicted, may be sentenced to up to two years’ imprisonment.

More information

For more information about extended supervision, Community Probation
and Psychological Services or the Department of Corrections, contact
your local CPPS office.

You can also read Part 1A of the Parole Act 2002 (as amended by the Parole Amendment Acts of 2004 and 2007) in full.