Staying home: The new community-based sentences mean judges
can sentence offenders to home detention, among other options.
New community sentences introduced in October have had steady ‘pick-up’ by judges around the country as alternatives to short-term prison sentences for lower risk offenders.
By November 19, a total of 128 offenders had been sentenced to home detention since the new sentences were introduced on October 1. Ninety-two had been sentenced to community detention (electronic curfew). The number sentenced to intensive supervision reached 156, while 986 were put on supervision.
The new sentences and other changes are being managed very well by probation staff, says General Manager of Community Probation & Psychological Services (CPPS) Katrina Casey.
She says “the response to the new-style pre-sentence reports and sentencing options has been positive - from both the judiciary and CPPS staff”.
“Judges have indicated they are pleased that probation officers canvass all sentencing options, and include the rationale for any recommendations in their reports.”
Home detention as a stand-alone sentence, rather than a way of serving a prison sentence, is growing in numbers at a steady rate.
Many sentenced to the new community detention sentence have had curfew hours imposed during or including the evening periods. Probation staff have managed a smooth introduction of the new technology to monitor offenders on these curfews, Katrina says. While the technology is similar to that provided and monitored by Chubb for home detention, it is supplied by a new provider, Group 4 Securicor - a United Kingdom-based company.
Katrina says the new intensive supervision sentence is slowly building in volume. This rehabilitative sentence is designed to provide for more active involvement between the probation officer and offender, than the old sentence of supervision. Supervision has been reworked to provide a lower-level option, on the same tier as community work.
Katrina says the implementation of the new sentences, the drive to recruit an extra 200 probation staff, and an intensive training programme for new and existing staff, have all been strands of a significant project for CPPS. The sentencing changes put in place the most comprehensive set of community sentencing options NZ has ever seen.
Now that the sentences are bedding in and the initial training is completed, the project is nearing completion.
Katrina says she would like to “thank all those that have been involved in the implementation and its build-up, and, in particular, probation managers and staff since implementation for the commitment and professionalism they are continuing to demonstrate”.
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ISSN 1178-8453