Return to normal view

Final Report on the Post-Sentence Supervision and Detention of High-Risk Offenders Released

The Sentencing Advisory Council today released a Final Report on the post-sentence supervision and detention of high-risk offenders.

The Final Report presents the Council's recommendations in response to a reference received from the Attorney-General, the Hon Rob Hulls, MP, in May 2006, requesting the Council’s advice on:

• the merit of introducing a scheme of post-sentence detention in Victoria for offenders who have reached the end of their custodial sentence but who are considered to pose a continued and serious danger to the community
• the possible structure of a continuing detention scheme, should the government choose to introduce one.

The Report follows an earlier Discussion and Options Paper released in January 2007 that identified a number of the arguments for and against the introduction of a continuing detention scheme, and presented a possible model for such a scheme with a view to stimulating discussion and debate.

The Council has concluded that extended supervision in the community, if properly resourced and structured, is equally able to achieve the goal of community protection, and does so in a less intrusive way than continuing detention.

However, in response to the Attorney-General’s specific request, the report not only provides advice about how the Extended Supervision Scheme could be improved but also proposes a model for a new High-Risk Offenders Scheme that could include aspects of both supervision and detention. The Report includes recommendations in relation to both options.

The report and summary are available on this website.