C.03.01.R3 Principles to be Considered (National Requirement)

Requirement

• In deciding whether a prisoner should or should not be transferred, a staff member authorised to make that decision must be guided by the following principles, where relevant:

Category of Prisoner

1. An accused prisoner is normally to be received at and accommodated in the receiving prison closest to the remanding court;
2. When a receiving prison has insufficient capacity to hold all accused prisoners from the courts in its catchment and all convicted prisoners from the local region, priority is to be given to accused prisoners;
3. A prisoner sentenced to imprisonment or preventive detention is to be placed in or transferred to a prison with accommodation suitable to his or her security classification;
4. A prisoner sentenced to imprisonment or preventive detention, other than a prisoner classified as CB security or attending a rehabilitative programme available at only certain prisons is, where there is sufficient accommodation, normally to be transferred to a prison in his or her home region.

Gender of Prisoner

1. All female prisoners are to be initially received in, and continue to be placed in, a female-only prison, or in a prison with facilities for female prisoners that are entirely separate from those for male prisoners;
2. All male prisoners are to be initially received in, and continue to be placed in, a male-only prison, or in a prison with facilities for male prisoners that are entirely separate from those for female prisoners;
3. Transgender prisoners, who have undergone gender reassignment, are normally to be accommodated in a prison of the gender with which they identify.

Insufficient Accommodation

1. When a prisoner is unable to be placed in a prison in his or her home region because of insufficient accommodation, that prisoner is to be placed in a prison as close as practicable to his or her home region;
2. When there is insufficient accommodation within a region to place all convicted prisoners from that region in local prisons then priority is to be given to those prisoners having the greatest need in terms of:
   1. Accessibility for visits from family and support persons;
   2. Accessibility to rehabilitative opportunities that require placement in a prison in the region in which they are to reside upon release.

• Any decision to transfer a prisoner must take into account that prisoner’s sentence management plan.