This chapter outlines the principles that CPPS staff must adhere to when making enforcement action decisions regarding community detention (CD) sentences. It provides:
Note: All references to enforcement actions within this chapter are to both CD sanctions and legal enforcement action. More detailed information is provided in further chapters about the use of sanctions and breaches.
Any failure by the offender to comply with a requirement of the sentence is considered to be non-compliance.
Examples:
Enforcement action is any action taken by the probation officer or senior community work supervisor in response to non-compliance.
Examples:
All instances of non-compliance should be addressed with the offender and some action taken. This action should be taken quickly and decisively.
Each situation should be considered on its own merits and in conjunction with the enforcement guidelines for CD. The enforcement action taken should consider:
Any deviation from the enforcement guidelines should be discussed with a service manager and clearly outlined in IOMS casenotes.
There are two distinct levels of enforcement action which may be taken in response to non-compliance with CD:
Sanctions are appropriate to use in response to minor instances of non-compliance, such as the first instance of failing to report as instructed. A sanction is any form of action taken by a probation officer or senior community work supervisor in response to non-compliance that does not involve legal action.
Sanctions available in relation to CD are:
Legal action should be used in response to more serious levels of non-compliance, and also when sanctions imposed have not resulted in an improvement in the offender's response to the sentence.
The enforcement tools available to be used in these circumstances are:
Note: The senior community work supervisor must consult with their service manager before taking any legal enforcement action.
Reference: Volume 3B, Part IV, Chapter 2, Roles and Responsibilities. (Please refer to the related links section on this page).
Before making any decision about the type of enforcement action to take, the probation officer or senior community work supervisor must consider and balance the following:
In general, the probation officer or senior community work supervisor should take the lowest level of enforcement action considered likely to achieve the required result (usually future compliance).
It can be appropriate to repeat the same type of enforcement action, including sanctions, at appropriate intervals if this achieves the desired outcome. If non-compliance continues, the level of enforcement action must be escalated.
If it is determined that there is a serious risk to community safety (or the safety of any individual) this will always outweigh the potential benefit to the offender, or the stage at which sanctions have been considered/taken, and legal enforcement action will be taken.
In every instance that legal enforcement action is undertaken, check the enforcement action against the relevant sections of the legislation under which the offender was sentenced or released.
The probation officer or senior community work supervisor should be aware of which legislation the action is being taken under, and the specific requirements of that legislation.
All enforcement action taken in relation to CD is taken under the Sentencing Act 2002.
Decisions regarding appropriate enforcement action are not always straightforward. When the probation officer or senior community work supervisor is unclear as to the most appropriate response to non-compliance, advice should be sought from a senior probation officer or service manager.
The senior community work supervisor must always consult with the service manager if they consider that legal enforcement action is warranted.
All legal enforcement action undertaken must be checked by the service manager (or other delegated person).
The following must be recorded in IOMS casenotes:
Enforcement action must always be taken quickly and decisively. It is important that offenders are made aware of non-compliance before the next scheduled curfew (or on the next working day if the next curfew is on a non-working day).
Probation officers and senior community work supervisors are responsible for ensuring that offenders understand the consequences of non-compliance, and for ensuring these consequences are applied appropriately.
Note: For OWS offenders subject to CD, some form of sanction, warning or formal enforcement action must be commenced within one week of the discovery of the non-compliance.
Staff must be aware of, and look for, patterns of non-compliance.
If an ongoing pattern of non-compliance is evident, then staff must consider making an application for cancellation and substitution, and should consult with their service manager.
A key enforcement action tool for CPPS staff is the application for cancellation and substitution.
In most circumstances this will operate according to the sentence hierarchy. This means the recommendation will be to cancel the existing sentence and substitute a sentence from the same or next (higher) level in the hierarchy.
Note: Staff should not generally use an application for variation in response to non-compliance as it will not be recorded on the offender's criminal history. An application for cancellation and substitution is more appropriate. It is recorded on the offender's criminal history, thus creating a record of the non-compliance on the criminal history.
Because the curfew is the core of the CD sentence, it is appropriate to request that the existing sentence is cancelled and substituted with a new sentence of CD with a stricter/larger curfew schedule (usually a daily 12 hour curfew, or a full weekend curfew).