Under the Crimes (sentence Administration) Act 2005 (the CSA Act), a Community Corrections Officer must report breaches of parole to the Board on a belief held on reasonable grounds that there has been a breach of parole (section 143 of the CSA Act). The police may arrest a parolee without warrant if they believe on reasonable grounds that a parolee has breached their parole (section144 of the CSA Act). A Judge or Magistrate may issue a warrant for arrest of a parolee if there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the offender has breached or will breach the parole order.
The Board does not deal with all alleged breaches. The enactment in 2020 of a COVD-measure and related Guidelines means that ACT CS officers now have the power to deal with a wide range of breaches of parole and ICOs for any offender Crimes (Sentence Administration) COVID-19 Emergency Guidelines 2020 | Notifiable instruments (act.gov.au) The Board has a limited or no role under the measure. This major change affects arrangements for managing offenders who are serving their sentence in the community in the ACT. Also, under the Crimes Act 1914 (Commonwealth) the Board does not have jurisdiction to make decisions about parole or breaches of parole or ICOs for federal offenders. These matters are referred by the ACT Corrective Services (ACT CS) to the relevant Commonwealth officer or sentencing court.
When an alleged breach is submitted to the Board, the process is as follows. Upon being informed of an alleged breach, the Board aims promptly to conduct a hearing with the offender. The offender and other parties are given written notice by the Board of a breach hearing. The alleged breaches are provided to the offender in a written report prepared by the Community Corrections Officer, commonly referred to as a ‘Breach Report’.
The Board has various powers to have the parolee arrested and brought before the Board if the alleged breaches and circumstances justify this, or if the parolee does not attend a hearing as required (section 206 of the CSA Act).
At the hearing, the Board first considers the evidence about whether the alleged breaches occurred and decides if they are proved.
If the Board decides that the parolee has breached their conditions, the Board has the following range of options available to it:
- Take no further action.
- Give the offender a warning about the need to comply with the offender's parole obligations.
- Give directions about the offender's supervision in the community.
- Change the offender's parole obligations by imposing or amending an additional condition of the parole order.
- Cancel the offender's parole order.
Parole is automatically cancelled if a parolee commits a further offence during the parole period that is punishable by imprisonment, even if the parolee was not sentenced to prison for that further offence. The cancellation will take effect for any further imprisonable offences that have been committed in the ACT, interstate or overseas. Cancellation is required even if the conviction is confirmed after the parole period finishes (sections 149-152 of the CSA Act).