Parole conditions are imposed on parolees to support them in the community and ensure the safety of victims of crime and the community. All breaches of parole conditions are treated seriously by Probation and Parole Officers and the Parole Board.
Guidelines provide Probation and Parole officers with clear procedures for dealing with all breaches of parole conditions. When a parolee breaches certain specified parole conditions, or re-offends, the Probation and Parole Officer must prepare a revocation report for the Chairperson to consider out-of-session or, in some cases, for the next meeting of the Parole Board. The report includes recommendations for management of the parolee but the revocation decision is made by the Chairperson, or the Parole Board if the revocation report is not considered out of session.
When the Chairperson and/or Parole Board receives a revocation report they must consider the nature and seriousness of the breach and, if the parolee is under a standard parole order, may:
An instrument of revocation authorises the police to arrest the parolee and bring the parolee before the Local Court. Provided a Judge of the Local Court is satisfied that an instrument of revocation has issued, the Local Court must issue a warrant of commitment and the parolee is committed to prison to serve the balance of the sentence of imprisonment which had not been served at the date the parolee was released on parole. If the parolee is under a COMMIT Parole order (referred to in the Parole Act as the ‘sanctions regime’) and the parolee breaches the conditions of parole, the Chairperson of the Parole Board will normally impose a sanction of a short term of imprisonment on the parolee (see below).
In August 2017 amendments to the Parole Act were enacted to afford the Parole Board increased options for managing non-compliance with parole orders. Previously, the Board could only deal with non-compliance as follows:
The Board recognised that these procedures provided insufficient options for the management of parolees who had breached their parole conditions. Warning letters were often too lenient and failed to achieve behavioural change; and, as most breaches of parole are conditional breaches, revocation of parole was often too severe and defeated the purpose of parole which is the successful reintegration of parolees in the community.
The Parole Board formed the view that the Parole Act should be amended to enable a similar regime to the COMMIT(Compliance Management or Incarceration in the Territory) Sentencing Program to be applicable to parolees. The COMMIT Sentencing Program is being successfully trialled in the Supreme and the Local Courts. The program was originally designed by Judge Alm of Hawaii to effect behaviour change by delivering immediate, pre-determined sanctions of a short term of imprisonment for breaches of probation, and encourage offenders to take responsibility for their choices and actions. The program is called HOPE in Hawaii. The HOPE Program was so successful that it has now been introduced in 28 jurisdictions in the United States of America.
The amendments to the Parole Act enable parolees to be managed in the community under a similar sanctions regime to the COMMIT Sentencing Program.
COMMIT parole is designed to operate swiftly, certainly and fairly. The sanctions are pre-determined and the parolee knows in advance that every act of non-compliance with their parole order will attract a sanction of between 1 and 30 days imprisonment. The length of the sanction depends on the seriousness of any non-compliance and the level of responsibility the parolee takes for the non-compliance. If a parolee takes full responsibility for the non-compliance and attempts to rectify their actions, they will receive a shorter sanction. If a parolee is dishonest or tries to cover up their non-compliance they will receive a longer sanction. The sanctions are set out in a publically available Sanctions Matrix. There is no loss of ‘street time’ if a sanction under the sanctions regime is imposed on a parolee.
The Chairperson of the Board retains the power to revoke a COMMIT parole order at any time. Parole is likely to be revoked if the parolee re-offends or there is a very serious incident of non-compliance. If parole is revoked there is a loss of ‘street time’. COMMIT Parole is not merely a deterrence based regime. The purpose of the regime is to change parolees’ behaviour. The program is designed to help parolees through their parole orders and there is a strong emphasis on rehabilitation in the parole conditions. The Northern Territory Government has provided extra funding to enable COMMIT parolees to access rehabilitation programs in the community.
Parolees were released under COMMIT parole for the first time in November 2017.