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| Madam Speaker, I move that the bills be now read a second time. I am pleased to introduce the Correctional Services Bill 2014 and the Correctional Services (Related and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2014. These bills deliver on the government’s commitment to provide an improved and robust foundation for the administration of sentences and the management of offenders in the Northern Territory. The existing Prisons Correctional Services Act, enacted in 1980, has now been amended many times, but has not been the subject of a wholesale review. It has now become antiquated. Goodness gracious me, I was working in 1980 and the bill is antiquated, but there you go. It has now become antiquated in its scope and does not accurately reflect the changes and advancement in the Correctional Services of the Northern Territory, both in practice and terminology. The Correctional Services Bill 2014 has been a long time coming, and I am very proud to be introducing it today, in light of the commissioning of the Darwin Correctional Precinct at Holtze in the near future. The Correctional Services Bill 2014 will repeal and replace the Prisons Correctional Services Act with a legislative model that reflects current correctional service approaches, and is both transparent and practical in its approach. It will underpin future Correctional Services management in the Northern Territory. The bills that I am introducing today are the result of stocktake of the Northern Territory’s current Correctional Services practice against the Prisons Correctional Services Act. They are also the result of an assessment of Correctional Services and sentence administration legislation in other Australian jurisdictions, consultation with Northern Territory government agencies and feedback from external stakeholders, including the legal profession, independent statutory authorities and relevant unions. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who have provided feedback to date. Some of this feedback has resulted in changes to the bills. I would be happy to consider further suggestions in the two months the bills will now lie before this House, prior to debate. Should sensible amendments be suggested during this time, committee stage amendments may be considered. Where necessary and practical to do so, concepts of the current Prisons Correctional Services Act have been maintained, with the necessary terminology modifications. I would, however, like to draw your attention to some of the major provisions of the Correctional Services Bill 2014 that are new or a modernisation of the existing act. The bill contains new statutory roles and responsibilities for the Commissioner of Correctional Services, general managers, regional managers and correctional officers. These positions replace the roles of the Director of Correctional Services, superintendents and prison officers. Probation and parole officers will replace the roles of parole officers, probation officers and surveillance officers. The commissioner now has broad powers to enable him or her to manage all prison and custodial correctional facilities. The power extends to those persons who may be in a correctional centre but are not prisoners, such as support persons and infants who are residing with their mother. The commissioner also has powers to manage non-custodial offenders. Prisons and police prisons in the existing act are replaced by correctional centres and police custody centres. The bill also introduces the concept of a court custody centre. Court custody centres will be an area of the courthouse used to detain a prisoner immediately after the court has ordered that the person be committed or remanded into the custody of the commissioner or otherwise held in custody. The bill clarifies the circumstances in which a prisoner is to be considered to be in lawful custody. The concept covers situations where a prisoner is being transported between centres, or is some form of authorised release or leave of the correctional centre. Non-custodial offenders are defined as those persons undergoing prescribed sentences to be served in the community. The concept of the commissioner’s direction has been introduced in the bill, and provides a formal mechanism for the issuing and clarification of operational policy and procedures. The concept of leave of absence has been reframed to clarify the circumstances in which the commissioner may issue a leave permit, and the conditions which may be attached to such a permit. Consistent with the government’s Sentenced to a Job policy, the bill makes it clear that the commissioner can direct sentenced prisoners to work. Prisoners who are on remand are able to work if they consent to do so. There is also a provision that gives the commissioner the discretion to charge, for all or part, a particular service or program delivered to a prisoner. The intention is to give the commissioner the ability to charge for a service program that may not be part of the core sentence or Correctional Services programs. The provision also allows for charges in relation to repatriation costs. The provision is a means of ensuring the correctional centres in the Northern Territory can fiscally support and expand the range of programs and services offered for prisoners. The intention of the commissioner is to only change prisoners for services and programs if the prisoner has a positive balance in their trust account. Although a negative trust account balance is unlikely to exist as each prisoner’s trust account will be closely managed by the Commissioner, the bill requires any negative balance to be written off upon the prisoner’s release from custody. I thank the legal profession for council on this issue. The offences in the current act have been redrafted to be compliant with part 2AA of the Criminal Code. There are also a number of new offences. In particular the bill introduces a change of name without permission offence for prisoners, as well as an offence for prisoners who possess prohibited things, including mobile communications devices. Importantly, and in contrast to the current act, the bill contains the four standard regulatory agency offences of falsely representing to be an officer, obstructing an officer, providing misleading information and a breach of confidentiality by an officer. Although previously a condition of employment, the bill now specifically allows for the commissioner to drug and alcohol test employees at any time and check their criminal history for current or spent records. The bill notes that a person is in the custody of the Commissioner once a remand-in-prison or imprisonment order of a court has been made. This includes circumstances where there is a time lag between the order being made and the paper form of the warrant being received. In particular the bill clearly establishes that a person becomes a prisoner at the moment the court order is made. The new provisions allowing the commissioner to request health information pertaining to a prisoner from the Chief Executive Officer of the Health department ensure that the prisoner’s treatment can be managed appropriately and expediently. This part of the bill is consistent with the approach taken in South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. There are also specific responsibilities upon the commissioner to provide prisoners with access to health care. New legislative protections have been inserted regarding the use of force. The Commissioner is required to ensure as far as practicable, that the force is used as a last resort. In particular the use of force by a corrections officer must be reasonable in the circumstances and the correctional officer must reasonably believe that the purpose for which the force is to be used cannot be reasonably achieved by any other practicable way. This reflects the last resort principal for the use of force. There is a requirement on the commissioner to issue directions concerning the use of force. A new provision provides the territory recover costs if an offender destroys or damages a monitoring device or any other device or equipment owned or provided by the Northern Territory. And finally, and in addition to the leave permit schemes, in the current act there is a new type of prisoner leave permit called Administrative Home Detention Permit. The Administrative Home Detention Permit is adapted from the similar leave scheme currently operating in South Australia. In the Northern Territory the scheme will allow the Commissioner to release a qualifying prisoner on a permit, subject to conditions. The purpose of the Administrative Home Detention Permit Scheme is to provide prisoners with the opportunity to reintegrate into the general community in a supervised, structured and supported manner. Towards the end of their sentence of imprisonment this new type of release will provide a valuable alternative to imprisonment. In South Australia has successfully supported the graduated release of prisoners back into the community. Qualifying prisoners are those who do not have a non-parole period fixed as part of their sentence of imprisonment and have less than 12 months to run on their sentence and have served at least 50% of the actual imprisonment term. This includes prisoners serving partially suspended sentences. Prisoners who are detainees under the Serious Sex Offenders Act, youth prisoners, immigration detainees, prisoners who are serving a mandatory term of imprisonment for a violent offence under part 3A division 6A of the Sentencing Act, and those serving indefinite sentences are specifically disqualified. It is intended that most prisoners released on Administrative Home Detention Permit will be released on the condition that they wear an electronic monitoring device. An Administrative Home Detention Permit is characterised as the monitoring order in this bill and prisoners released on such a permit will be subject to compliance and mechanisms of this bill for such orders. The commissioner can revoke an administrative home detention permit for any reason, and where a breach is identified the bill enables Corrections officers to return the prisoner to a custodial correctional facility or other appropriate place to serve the remaining term of the imprisonment. Strict conditions and stringent monitoring procedures will be imposed and the safety of the community will remain paramount. It is envisaged that prisoners subject to an administrative home detention permit will have a structured day where they must have a job, be involved in educational or training programs, be part of voluntary community service as a means of offering restitution to the community or be gaining vocational skills. Administrative home detention permits will: (a) assist to achieve behavioural changes by providing supervised, reintegration of prisoners into the community towards to end of their sentence (b) provide a cost effective community-based management of offenders as an alternative to imprisonment (c) extend the Department of Correctional Services capability to implement the philosophy of through care by providing further option for a prisoner’s case plan (d) provide offenders with the opportunity to improve family cohesion and function (e) as an incentive for prisoners in correctional centres. I will provide an update to this House as soon as practicable after the act has been operational for 12 months on the administrative home detention permit scheme. I will now turn my attention to various parts of the bill. Chapter 1 - Preliminary Matters: this chapter is the preliminary matters part and corporates the short title commencement clause and notes an application of part 2AA of the Criminal Code Act to the offences in the bill. This chapter also sets out the definitions and interpretation clauses, as well as setting out the application of the bill to both prisoners and non-custodial offenders. Importantly, part 1.2 clarifies that once an order of a court to remand or commit a person into custody has been made the person becomes a prisoner and is in the commissioner’s custody regardless of whether or not a warrant of commitment has been issued. Clause 8 of the bill notes that where a court or a person or other body authorised to do so commits a person into custody, including committing or remanding the person or particular correctional facility, the person is committed or remanded into the custody of the Commissioner of Correctional Services. This chapter will facilitate changes to the way that warrants are issued under the Justices Act and the Supreme Court rules because, rather than committing the offender to a particular correction centre or simply into custody, a warrant will commit a person into custody of the commissioner. For this purpose, the Correctional Services (Related and Consequential Amendments) Bill amends the Justices Act for the Court of Summary Jurisdiction. We will be working with the Supreme Court into the future to work through the issues for that court; however, immediate change is not necessary as the provisions will deem the prisoner to be in the commissioner’s custody. The provisions allow the commissioner greater flexibility in the administration of the offenders time in custody and allows for the prisoner to be placed in the most appropriate location as determined by the commissioner. Persons committed or remanded to a place that is not a custodial corrections facility, or into the custody of a specified person, for example a hospital if a person has been found unfit to plea under section 43ZA(1)(a)(ii) of the Criminal Code Act or into the custody of the sheriff or civil contempt matters are not considered to be the commissioner’s custody as a prisoner. The provisions also clarify that when a person is in lawful custody when they are unlawfully absent - if a prisoner is unlawfully absent Part 3.4 allows for the prisoner to be arrested without warrant by a correctional officer or a police officer. Chapter 2. Correctional Services Administration: this chapter provides for the establishment of the various custodial corrections facilities and community correctional facilities. It empowers the minister to appoint the Commissioner for Correctional Services, previously known as the rector, who has the overall responsibility for the control and management of offenders, correctional services establishments and any person accommodated at those establishments who are not prisoners. The commissioner is also responsible for the security and good order of these facilities, the management of offenders and the management of persons attending or visiting these locations. The commissioner has the powers of a correctional services officer. The chapter also provides for the commissioner to appoint general managers of correctional centres – previously superintendents – correctional officers – previously prison officers – regional managers, who will be responsible for the day to day control and management of community, corrections facilities and non-custodial offenders, and probation and parole officers. The chapter also enshrines the role and responsibility of the official visitors. The bill maintains the requirement for the minister to appoint at least three official visitors for each of the custodial facilities. An official visitor must visit a custodial correction facility at least once a month and must enquire into the treatment, behaviour and conditions of the prisoners. The official visitor must report his or her findings, if any, to the minister. The bill also provides clarification around the termination and appointment of an official visitor. Official visitors will continue to play a vital role in overseeing, monitoring and reporting on the treatment conditions of prisoners in the Territory’s custodial and correctional facilities. The chapter also empowers the commissioner to allow volunteers to assist with certain functions; for example, assisting in the supervision of provisions of activities that have been supported and beneficial functions for prisoners and non-custodial offenders. Importantly, this chapter of the bill bolsters the capacity of the commissioner to order drug and alcohol tests in part 2.4, to ensure the integrity of the employees. This power is further complimented by empowering the commissioner to request criminal history checks in part 5.2 for employees, volunteers or official visitors. Although these tests and checks should be a condition of employment or appointment, the bill expressly provides the commissioner with the power to undertake these checks. The ability to drug and alcohol test employees will bring the department into line with other industries and may mitigate the risk of employees entering the workplace impaired by alcohol or drugs, such as that they could pose a risk to the health and safety of themselves, other staff or persons in their control. Chapter 3, Custodial Correctional Facilities - this is the chapter that contains the majority of the operational matters necessary for managing custodial correctional facilities. Part 3.1 deals with the management of prisoners. This part allows for the searching of prisoners, including their mail and any personal property. The part allows for the intimate searching of a prisoner by an authorised health practitioner. The provisions require at least one person be present to be of the same sex as the prisoner. The remission or sentence provision of the current act has been omitted and a new clause has been inserted that empowers the commissioner to release a prisoner from custody up to seven days prior to their official release date, if the commissioner considers it appropriate to do so. This will allow for flexibility in managing the repatriation of prisoners. The youth transfer provisions allow for the transfer of youth prisoners or youth detainees from their respective facility or centre to another. Youth detainees under the Youth Justice Act will only be transferred to a custodial correctional facility in accordance with the new section 154 of that act, as set out in the Correctional Services (Related and Consequential Amendments) Bill. This new section 154 allows for the temporary transfer of youth detainees to a custodial corrections facility if certain circumstances prevail. Currently, section 154 is inflexible as it only allows the transfer of an individual detainee, not groups, and only in cases where the safety of another person is or was threatened. The new section 154 allows for the superintendent of the detention facilities who made an interim order for the transfer of a detainee to a custodial correctional facility for up to three days. If necessary, the superintendent can apply to a magistrate for the detainee to remain at the facility for another seven days. This process alleviates the administrative burden of having to return to court every 24 hours to have the transfer order confirmed, even if the circumstances have not changed. The bill ensures that detainees must be accommodated separately from all prisoners. The provisions in this bill relating to prisoner misconduct, essentially, reflect what is provided for the existing Prisons (Correctional Services) Act with the addition that where a prisoner has committed misconduct, or caused damage to property owned by a person other than the prisoner, the prisoner may be ordered to pay restitution for each item being damaged or destroyed. The provision relating to the health and welfare is retained in the structure of the current act. However, the bill has clarified the role of the commissioner and the Chief Executive of the Department of Health, in the arrangement and provision of health care. The division includes a cause relating to the provision of health information by the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Health. The only current information appropriate for the management of a prisoner needs to be provided. Importantly, the commissioner is required to ensure that any health information is accessible only by person authorised by the commissioner, and the commissioner will be issuing directions about the obtaining of, storage and use of such information. There are also provisions allowing for a medical practitioner to provide treatment to a prisoner without their consent, where they are at risk of serious harm. There is also a provision allowing for the general manager to request that a medical practitioner administer medication to a prison, without their consent. In making such a request, the general manager must be satisfied that doing so is necessary to prevent the risk of harm and is the least restrictive intervention available in all of the circumstances. Part 3.2 Visits and Communications: the bill enables prisoners to receive visitors, subject to the necessary search and screening requirements. The commissioner retains the ability to prohibit classes of persons from visiting, and the general manager may prohibit entry to any individual if they consider it appropriate. However, for lawyers and priority visitors, for example the Ombudsman, members of the Legislative Assembly and judges, the general manager can only refuse entry if it is necessary in order to maintain the security and good order of the facility. Once in the facility, a corrections officer can terminate a visit, where appropriate, and this applies to lawyers and priority visitors. General managers cannot audio record lawyer and priority visitor’s visits, but may observe these visits and visually record them. This is generally for safety reasons, or to view for the possible exchange of items. This part notes that a prisoner may make telephone calls, subject to the commissioner’s directions, and may send and receive mail. A prisoner will not be prevented from calling their legal practitioner, unless the general manager reasonable believes that it is necessary to maintain the security and good order of the corrections centre. The part notes that the prisoner must not be prohibited from receiving mail that is a protected or legal item, and part 3.5 places limitations on how a protected legal item may be inspected. Following feedback from the legal profession, the intention of section 48A of the current act will remain, in order to protect legal privilege. That is, if a corrections officer reasonable believes mail contains prohibited items or is suspected of not coming from a legal practitioner or protector correspondent, the corrections officer must inform the general manager, and the general manager must arrange for the reported legal item to be inspected by a nominated examiner approved by the minister. For legal items, the nominated examiner may be a legal practitioner. A similar process has also been established for protected correspondence. Mail and documents to and from protected correspondents can only be inspected by a nominated examiner. The provisions ensure that the appropriate recognition is given to the role lawyers and protected correspondents play when advising and communicating with the prisoner. I thank the legal provision for their comments on these issues, which I believe has led to more robust protections for their correspondence in this bill. Maintaining the intention of the current act, the bill requires the commissioner to take all reasonable measures to ensure that every prisoner has access to a religious or spiritual advisor of his or her particular faith or belief system within reason. Part 3.3 Leave Permits: this part authorises absences from a correction centre through a leave permit scheme, and includes the administrative home detention permits which I discussed earlier. In addition to administrative home distinction permits, and in line with the Prisoners Correctional Services Act, the bill maintains the commissioner’s power to grant a leave of absence from a correctional centre. The commissioner may use this power for education and training, employment, compassionate reasons, recreational participation in community projects, integration into the community or other such reasons as the commissioner considers appropriate. As part of a uniform national scheme, the bill maintains the provisions of the Prisons Correctional Services Act pertaining to interstate custodial leave permits and leave of absence in relation to a foreign proceeding or investigation with the necessary terminology modifications. Part 3.4 Maintaining Security and Good Order - The Use of Force: this part incorporates the use of force provisions discussed earlier, and notes that the commissioner is mandated to issue directions about the use of force. Part 3.5 General Matters About Custodial and Correctional Facilities: this part contain various miscellaneous matters concerning custodial and correctional facilities. As discussed previously, part 3.5 contains the provisions for dealing with confiscated, protected and legal items. Protected or legal items must have a special status under this part and can only be inspected and dealt with in a certain manner. As discussed earlier, this part contains a provision that allows the Commissioner to charge a prisoner with a fee for providing certain services or programs to that prisoner to recover costs. This part also notes that the Commissioner has the responsibility to maintain a prisoner’s trust account. This part also sets out a requirement that prisoners are to have access to this act, and any regulations made under this act at the Commissioner’s directions which relate to the conduct and entitlement of prisoners. It does not extend to directions that relate to matters of security. Chapter 4, non-custodial offenders and community correction facilities. Part 4.1 of chapter 4 applies to non-custodial offenders as well as prisoners released from correction centres on an administrative home detention permit. This part allows the Commissioner to approve work projects and rehabilitation programs as approved projects under section 3 of the Sentencing Act and outlines the monitoring powers and devices that may be used. This part also provides a probation and parole officer with the power to ensure that non-custodial offenders comply with the conditions of their order, essentially mirroring the powers previously provided to surveillance officers under the Prisoners Correctional Services Act. It includes the ability for the Commissioner to place or attach a monitoring device on an offender. The Department of Correctional Services is in the process of introducing electronic monitoring devices that can monitor the location of offenders. This will be a critical tool to assist in the monitoring of non-custodial offenders and will complement other monitoring mechanisms deployed by officers. The bill also allows for regulations to be made regarding the administration of monitoring tests, including a breath test, breath analysis, blood test, saliva test and urine test. Regulations are being prepared for this purpose. Chapter 5, general matters. The bill maintains the offences currently provided for in the Prisoners Correctional Services Act that frames them to be compliant with part 2AA of the Criminal Code. The bill also introduces a number of new offences. They are: an offence for prisoners to possess a prohibited thing, including a mobile communications device. It is a defence if they have the consent of the general manager. It is an offence for any person to possess prohibited things at a custodial correctional facility without the permission of the general manager. It is an offence for a person to have taken an unauthorised photograph or recording for a purpose related to the custodial corrections facility without the general manager’s consent. It is an offence to fail to provide a name and address at either a custodial correctional facility or a community correctional facility. It is the inclusion of the four standard regulatory offences for falsely representing to be an officer, obstructing an officer, providing misleading information and a breach of confidentiality by an officer. There is an offence relating to tampering with samples taken for the purpose of prescribed alcohol and drug tests, an offence for a prisoner or parolee to change their name without permission of the Commissioner, and an offence to harm a correctional services’ dog. The serious offences in the act carry a maximum of two years imprisonment. This is consistent with the current act. The maximum monetary penalties for these serious offences have been bolstered to 200 penalty units to be consistent with other Northern Territory statutes and similar offences in other jurisdictions. The offences of failing to supply a name and address, name change by a prisoner without permission, loitering and failing to leave a custodial correction facility carry a penalty of up to six months imprisonment or a 50 penalty units fine. The offence of removing property from a correctional centre without permission carries a monetary maximum penalty of 50 penalty units. This is consistent with the approach to this offence in Queensland. If the case warrants it, the Criminal Code offences and a number of other offences against the Summary Offences Act, will apply to conduct engaged in in a corrections centre. Part 5.2 sets out various administrative matters for the agency, including protections from liability, a six month time limit on commencing proceedings for criminal and civil matters, provisions regarding alcohol and drug testing, approvals for drug and alcohol tests, and the aforementioned criminal history checks for staff and volunteers and offenders. As good as correctional services departments are expected to have detailed and secure information systems in place, this part of the bill places a requirement on the general manager to keep records of important information relating to each prisoner, including the order or other authority under which the person is a prisoner and details of every occasion on which the force is used by a correctional officer in relation to a prisoner. This part of the bill also enables biometric identification systems to be used in any correctional services establishment. Such identification systems ensure that each person who enters the facility for the purpose of conducting a visit or carrying out duties is the same person who leaves the correctional centre after concluding that visit or carrying out those duties or activities. There are safeguards in the bill, including penalties for the breaches of confidentiality, to ensure that the appropriate practices are adhered to. This part also establishes that concept of commissioner directions which all correctional services officers, employees, agency and volunteers will be required to comply with. Chapter 6 repeals transitional and miscellaneous matters. Finally, the bill provides for the various savings and transitional matters to facilitate the transition from the current act to the new act. I will now briefly discus the standard clauses of the Correctional Services (Related and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2014. This cognate bill incorporates related and consequential amendments to acts and regulations that are associated with Correctional Services Bill 2014. Specifically, the bill updates the terminology across the statute book to match the new terms used in the Correctional Services Bill and inserts or amends clauses to ensure that they are consistent with the Correctional Services Bill 2014. Some of the key provisions of this bill are: � changes to the Justices Act to clarify that a warrant is not a necessary requirement in order to transport a person ordered into custody to a custodial correctional facility � changes to the Police Administration Act to allow correctional officers to assist police in bringing accused persons before a court who have not yet been remanded or committed into the custody of the commissioner � clarification in section 63A of the Sentencing Act that an offender is unlawfully absent as defined in the Correctional Services Bill whilst serving a term of imprisonment. The period of the lawful absence does not count as time served. Conversely, where a prisoner is lawfully absent as defined in the act the period of lawful absence does not count as time served As discussed previously, the insertion of a new section 154 in the Youth Justices Act. These bills, together with the informed and well-trained staff and appropriate rehabilitative programs for offenders, will provide the Territory with the necessary components to implement contemporary practices for the management of prisoners and community-based offenders. Madam Speaker, I take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed to the development of these bills, including the legal profession, legal assistant services statutory bodies, the judiciary union, staff associations, the Youth Justice Advisory Council, other government agencies and, most importantly, I wish to recognise the tireless efforts of the staff in the office of Parliamentary Counsel, the Department of Correctional Services and the Department of Attorney-General and Justice. I commend the bills to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statements. Debate adjourned. |