Under the Crimes (sentence Administration) Act 2005 (the CSA Act), a Community Corrections Officer must report breaches of parole to the Board when they hold a belief held on reasonable grounds that there has been a breach of parole (section 143 CSA Act). The police may arrest a parolee without warrant if they believe on reasonable grounds that a parolee has breached their parole (section144 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 offender’s parole.
Upon being informed of an alleged breach, the Board aims to promptly 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 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, then the Board has a range of options:
- 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 did not get 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 CSA Act).