Home Detention

In reply to the Hon. J.S. LEE (7 December 2016).

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety): I am advised:

Mr Raymond Jones is no longer at large. He was arrested by police on 18 December 2016 and subsequently placed in Department for Correctional Services (DCS) custody on 19 December 2016. The circumstances regarding Mr Jones is an example of where an offender released by the courts on bail under the Bail Act 1985 (the Bail Act) is being wrongly linked to the new home detention legislation, court ordered home detention under the Criminal Law Sentencing Act 1988 (CLSA) or release ordered home detention under the Correctional Services Act 1982 (CSA).

Since 1987 courts have been empowered to release a defendant on bail with conditions of home curfew and intensive bail supervision. Intensive bail supervision orders include electronic monitoring conditions. The electronic monitoring of bailees is an established legal precedent. The court has the power to set conditions that it considers appropriate (including electronic monitoring) under the Bail Act. The government has removed the presumption in favour of bail for certain categories of offenders under section 10A of the Bail Act. A defendant has to demonstrate special circumstances if they are captured by section 10A and are still seeking bail. Again this is a matter for the court.

Mr Jones had been subject to an intensive bail supervision order under the Bail Act. The decision to place Mr Jones on bail was a court decision.

Mr Jones was not a sentenced prisoner on court to home detention under the CLSA nor was he released by the Department for Correctional Services on release ordered home detention under the CSA. Therefore the new legislation was not a factor in this case.