The Territory Labor Government is introducing Enforced Corrections Orders to break the cycle of reoffending, prioritise victim safety, support victims of crime, and hold offenders accountable.
Legislation introduced into Parliament today will reform mandatory sentencing and mandatory non-parole periods for a limited range of offences (excluding murder, sexual offences, and assaulting a police officer or emergency worker), and will:
allow judges to sentence offenders to enforced behaviour change programs, work or training requirements, or life skills programs monitored and enforced by Corrections;increase penalties for breaches of Domestic Violence Orders; andrequire judges to consider the risk of domestic violence and how it should be mitigated.
Under these reforms, judges will have the power to use two new sentencing orders, both of which can be accompanied with a Work Direction, sentencing offenders to complete work or training requirements.
The new Enforced Correction Order will address reoffending through enforced community supervision. Offenders will be subject to community work and enforced behaviour change, life skills, and training programs.
The new Enforced Intensive Correction Order will apply to more serious offending and is a custodial order that is served in the community and can be imposed with a term of imprisonment. It includes mandatory intensive supervision, curfews, electronic monitoring and enforced behaviour change, life skills, and training programs.
Both orders will be accompanied by new, enforced behaviour change programs will be developed from evidence-based approaches to stopping reoffending, and co-designed with victims services. We will consult with victims of crime, health professionals, police, and the community over the next 12 months. These new programs will be in place before the new laws take effect in the second half of 2023.
These legislative changes are in response to the NT Law Reform Committee Report into Mandatory Sentencing and Community Based Sentencing Options, with the work aligned to the:
Aboriginal Justice Agreement (AJA);Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Framework 2018-2028; andDomestic, Family and Sexual Violence Inter-Agency Coordination and Reform Office (DFSV-ICRO) policies.
Quotes attributable to Attorney General and Minister for Justice Chansey Paech:
"If we want safer communities, we must break the cycle of reoffending. The Territory Labor Government is introducing these reforms to improve community safety, victim safety, protect victims of crime, and hold offenders accountable with real consequences for their actions.
"I speak to victims of crime, survivors of domestic and family violence, and affected communities across the Territory, I hear their stories, and I share their frustration.
"Over the next 12 months we'll be back we will consult with victims of crime, health professionals, police, and communities across the NT to design new behaviour change programs that are right for local communities, and actually work to prevent crime.
"The message we are sending today is that the revolving prison door stops here - this legislation is about breaking the cycle of reoffending, protecting victims of crime, prioritising victim safety and putting offenders to work."
