CD is a sentence targeted at:
The CD sentence can be imposed jointly with:
Rehabilitation needs can therefore be addressed through a joint sentence of supervision or intensive supervision.
CD has no rehabilitative elements, and the court cannot impose any special conditions (other than to specify the curfew address and curfew periods).
The core requirements of a CD sentence are that the offender remains at the specified curfew address during all specified curfew periods, and that their presence at that address during these periods is electronically monitored. It is estimated that CD sentences will be imposed for an average of three months.
The sentence requires the offender to be subject to electronically-monitored curfews. They are required to remain at the approved curfew address (usually a residential address) throughout one or more curfew periods each week.
Each curfew period must be for at least two hours, and the maximum amount of time to be spent under curfew each week is 84 hours. There are no other restrictions. This allows for a wide range of curfew schedules to be established.
Example: Curfews can be imposed for up to 12 hours every day, or for the whole of each weekend.
Before sentencing an offender to CD, the court must consider a probation officer’s report on the suitability of CD in this particular case. Both the offender, and all relevant occupants of the proposed address, must agree to comply with the conditions of CD. Their willingness and ability to comply will be assessed by a probation officer prior to sentencing, and reported to the court.
This information is provided by means of a full pre-sentence report with appendix, which is designed to provide all information the court needs to meet the requirements of section 69C(2) of the Sentencing Act.
The probation officer will include an appendix with the full pre-sentence report:
In the report the probation officer will recommend both the type and length of the sentence(s) to be imposed, and will include details of the proposed curfew address and recommended curfew periods. This will include the proposed date of the first curfew, which is to be no less than three working days after the sentencing hearing (in order to allow for the installation of monitoring equipment).
Before the hearing, a probation officer will have alerted staff responsible for the installation of equipment that CD may be imposed. Detailed arrangements for the installation of the electronic monitoring (EM) equipment will be made when the offender first reports (required within 24 hours of sentencing).
As long as the first curfew is not less than three days from sentencing, the EM equipment will be installed in advance of the first curfew.
The provisions for establishing curfew periods have been designed to allow maximum flexibility, so that curfew periods can be designed to meet individual circumstances. When recommending curfew periods in the pre-sentence report, probation officers will:
Curfews can be designed to meet individual circumstances, although unnecessary complexity should be avoided by limiting the number of different daily schedules.
If it is not possible to identify times of high risk during which the curfews should be imposed, it may be appropriate to simply limit the offender’s movements during particular parts of the day or week. It is possible to impose several curfew periods during any one day, and to impose different curfews for different days, so a curfew schedule can be built around the offender’s specific obligations (e.g. employment and child care).
Where it is possible to establish a pattern of offending, curfew periods can be designed to keep the offender at home during periods of highest risk.
Examples:
Where CD is being served concurrently with CW (either as the result of a joint sentence, or because one has been imposed as the result of breach action in relation to the other), it is expected that curfew periods will be used to confine the offender to home the night before they are due to report for CW.
In more serious cases, it may be appropriate to impose a curfew for a longer period of time (e.g. all weekend) with the only period not subject to a curfew being the time to be spent on CW (plus travel time).
Where CD is being served concurrently with a sentence of supervision or intensive supervision, it may be possible to design similar curfews in relation to special conditions to attend programmes, counselling or other similar events.
The legislation has been specifically designed so as not to restrict the use of CD to the offender’s place of residence. Again, this is to enable maximum flexibility in the design of the sentence to meet individual circumstances. While the curfew address will usually be a residential address, it may not be the offender’s usual address.
Examples:
It is also possible to use a non-residential property as the curfew address. Although it is not expected that this option will be used frequently it could be used to enable the court to impose weekend curfews on a marae in a situation where the members of the marae have agreed to take the offender ‘under their wing’ (as long as the location is suitable for EM).
It is not considered that employment or education facilities will be appropriate as curfew addresses. However, it is anticipated that a range of potential options will be identified and explored, as the new sentence of CD becomes established.
The offender will be monitored using technology similar to that currently used for HD. This involves having a home monitoring unit (HMU) installed in the residence, and an ankle bracelet securely attached to the offender’s ankle. The ankle bracelet remains in place at all times, unless specific arrangements are made to temporarily remove it (e.g. because the offender is admitted to hospital, or has to travel by plane).
CD is monitored retrospectively, with monitoring information from any given day reviewed by a probation officer on the following working day. A central monitoring facility, operated by the EM company, records when the offender is present at the curfew address and matches this with the curfew periods. Any tampering with the equipment (either the HMU or the ankle bracelet) is also recorded. Any failure to comply with the requirements of the sentence is taken seriously, and enforcement action will be taken where appropriate.
The offender must remain at the curfew address at all times throughout the specified curfew periods, other than in emergency situations. Absences can only be authorised by a probation officer on humanitarian grounds, or if the offender is also serving a sentence of supervision or intensive supervision.
As far as possible, curfew periods will be designed to minimise the need for authorised absences. If an ongoing change to the curfew periods is required, an application will be made to the court to vary the curfew period(s). Probation officers will therefore only authorise absences from CD curfews if the absence is considered essential, and will authorise them for the shortest reasonable time. If an absence is authorised, the probation officer will give the offender written evidence of the authorisation, which must be carried by the offender along with the original CD order, in case it is requested by a police officer or probation officer.
Offenders are required to report as directed. There are no routine requirements to report to the service centre, with the exception of:
There is no provision for programmes or other special conditions to be imposed on an offender sentenced to CD. If such conditions are imposed under a joint sentence of supervision or intensive supervision, joint planning will be undertaken to ensure that any conflict between curfew periods and special conditions are identified and managed.
If the offender’s circumstances change, it is essential that they advise their probation officer immediately. The probation officer will be able to advise the offender of the appropriate course of action to take.
In the event of a breakdown of arrangements relating to the curfew address, a probation officer may approve a temporary curfew address pending detailed consideration by the court. Approval of a temporary curfew address will require the agreement of all relevant occupants, and the temporary installation of EM equipment.
In the event of a need to make an ongoing change to a curfew period (e.g. because the offender has employment requirements that conflict with the curfew periods), a probation officer may temporarily suspend that curfew period pending detailed consideration by the court.
If the approval of a probation officer is not obtained, the adoption of any temporary alternatives by the offender will be treated as a failure to comply with the sentence and appropriate enforcement action will be taken.
If an offender fails to comply with one or more requirements of the sentence, without good reason, enforcement action will be taken against them. Before taking any such action, the probation officer will investigate the circumstances of the non-compliance in order to determine whether or not there was a good reason for it and will require independent evidence of such a reason.
Example: An unauthorised absence due to a medical emergency will require evidence from the medical staff attending to the emergency.
There is a limited range of enforcement action available for instances of non-compliance with CD. Lower level infringements are dealt with by internal sanctions such as formal written warnings. We are also exploring ways of using voice verification technology to increase the offender’s awareness of the start of curfew periods, and thus increase compliance where the non-compliance is a failure to be at the curfew address by the start of the curfew period.
More serious instances of non-compliance are dealt with by means of an application to the court. According to the severity of the non-compliance this could involve charging the offender with a breach of the sentence, or making an application to cancel the sentence of HD and substitute it with an alternative sentence.
Although the full range of available sentences will be considered as potential outcomes for a breach, it is expected that most breaches will result in the offender being sentenced to CW (or additional CW hours), which will be served concurrently with the CD sentence.
If the probation officer makes an application to cancel the sentence of CD and substitute it with an alternative sentence, the recommended sentence will usually be from a higher tier of the hierarchy. In some cases, it may be appropriate to substitute the current sentence with another sentence of CD, but with a considerably more restrictive curfew schedule. In other cases, a failure to comply with CD will indicate that the offender is also likely to fail to comply with HD, and a prison sentence will be recommended.
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