BETTER COURTS 2015

DRUG COURT PANEL

PRE-SENTENCE (BAIL) PROGRAMS

Jelena Popovic

Deputy Chief magistrate

Victoria, Australia

A BIG STATEMENT

• I SIMPLY COULD NOT UNDERTAKE MY DUTIES AS A MAGISTRATE WITHOUT THE EXISTENCE OF THE CISP PROGRAM

• I HAVE MADE IT MY MISSION TO HAVE CISP AVAILABLE TO EVERY PERSON, IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE AN ACCUSED, WHO COMES BEFORE THE MAGISTRATES’ COURT IN VICTORIA

Criminal Jurisdiction of the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria

• Property crime – up to $40,000 for a single charge

• Sexual offences excluding penetrative offences

• Injury offences excluding gross violence• Imprisonment of up to 2 years for a single

charge, to a maximum aggregation of 5 years

• No limit on fines

BAIL IN VICTORIA• Prima facie bail entitlement (with exceptions)• Conditions may be imposed to ensure a

person’s attendance at court, and to reduce risk of reoffending or endangering members of the public

• Recent amendment to Bail Act specifically provides that a condition may be imposed that a person attend and participate in a bail support service.

IN THE ADULT JURISDICTION, THREE PROGRAMS OPERATE IN

VICTORIA TO SUPPORT UNSENTENCED ACCUSED WHO PRESENT WITH PROBLEMATIC

DRUG & ALCOHOL ISSUES• Youth Justice Bail Supervision Program

• CREDIT/Bail

• CISP (and CROP)

YOUTH JUSTICE•Available for young persons aged 18-21•Assessed by a Youth Justice Officer in their local area.•If suitable, condition attached to bail to obey all lawful directions of YJ officer and attend all appointments arranged on •Appointment made with specialist youth drug and alcohol services and detoxification units, referrals to educational and vocational organisations, funding put in place for psychological or psychiatric assistance.•Regular judicial monitoring as recommended by YJ officer

RATIONALE•Commenced pre-sentence bail support in the late 1990’s in response to heroin related offending•Concerned constant reoffending to get money for drugs•Devised program to capitalise on contact with police and courts, and implement early, judicially monitored treatment.•Consider it is important not to require a plea: we seek to address the problematic behaviour that leads to interaction with criminal justice system•.

RATIONALE 2•Also concerned that offenders were not receiving any treatment until some months after being charged.•Additionally, many offenders considered to be too chaotic to be placed on community based orders. Several months on a bail program takes the chaos out of peoples lives making them more suitable for community based dispositions.

CREDIT/Bail•Voluntary

•Person assessed by clinician. If accepted onto the program, bail condition added to comply with program and clinician maintains supervisory and case management role

•Referrals made to drug and alcohol treatment agencies or other agencies as indicated

•Monthly reports prepared for magistrate

•Accused attend for monthly review

Geographic limitations:

• CREDIT/Bail is available throughout the metropolitan area and at three country locations

• More remote areas covered by ‘rural outreach’ workers

• An episode lasts for approximately 4 months

A LITTLE BACKGROUND…

• CREDIT per se was seen to be saving remand beds. As a consequence, additional funds were provided by Corrections to increase capacity. The ‘Bail’ support aspect was added.

• When court commenced CREDIT, already had a disability worker, Youth Justice, mental health liaison officers, Aboriginal liaison officers

• The court and government sought a program which would integrate all support services

Court Integrated Services Program

• We designed a multi-disciplinary case-management program which could manage the multiple co-morbidities with which the client group presented

• We endeavoured to integrate as many of the current programs the court was running and combine into one program

CISP PROGRAM AIMS

• To provide accused with short term support and targeted interventions with respect to a range of health and social needs

• To work on reducing recidivism by addressing the causes of offending through individualised case management support

• To assist accuse to access appropriate treatment and community support services

CISP 2

• Currently limited to 3 locations, Melbourne, sunshine ( a metro location) and La Trobe, a country location

• Accused is assessed by a clinician with expertise in the main presenting issue. However, a full assessment is made, and arrangements put in place to manage all the issues with which the accused presents

• The CISP team has clinicians with expertise in ABI, ID, mental health, drugs and alcohol

• Brokerage funds are available to provide emergency housing, travel cards, food vouchers and telephone cards

CISP 3

• The program workers from as a Housing Service embedded in it, as well as visiting financial counsellors and an employment agency

• The program assists in practical ways such as assisting persons to obtain identity documents in order that they can open bank accounts, and liaising with Social Security to have benefits restored

• If, after assessment by our ABI expert, a person appears to have an ABI, the program arranges full neuropsychological assessment, together with a follow up appointment with the neuropsych to have the finding explained to them

CISP 4

• As with CREDIT/Bail, the accused appears monthly with a report as to their progress on the program. Generally, should the matter resolve to a plea of guilty, the magistrate who has case managed the accused will preside over the plea

• An episode usually runs for 4 months• Average cost is around $3000 per client per

episode.• We fund approximately 150 neuropsychological

assessments per year (by way of contrast, corrections funs between 5-15). This increases the cost significantly

EVALUATION

• Now somewhat dated (2009)• Found that for every dollar spent, the State

saved $3.90• High degree of participant satisfaction, with most

reporting improvements in social functioning and health

• It is accepted that it works and that it provides value for money. Corrections funded the program to go into the prisons to start the assessment there to enable more remandees to apply for bail at an earlier time (reducing remand demand)

LEARNINGS

• Our community is endeavouring to address family violence. We have argued strongly that the multi-disciplinary approach of CISP, together with additional family violence expert staff, will improve community safety apropos family violence.

• Impossible to predict who will do well on eth program. Our greatest successes are with men over 40. the least likely to succeed are women with long histories of drug dependency

LEARNINGS

• The independence of the program inspires a level of confidence in the judiciary, the prosecution and the police

• 85% of accused persons assessed for CISP are admitted onto the program.

• We are not able to quantify how many accused would be on remand but for CISP, but it would be in the hundreds at any given time; a mammoth saving to government

• CISP is an example of mainstream application of problem solving principles

CHALLENGES

• New drugs – eg methylamphetamine – insufficient information about what works with ice dependent persons

• Shrinking pool of money, not just for our programs, but in the service sector generally

• Client group ever more complex

DOCUMENTS FOR DISTRIBUTION

• CISP evaluation 2009 • Drug Court Evaluation December 2014• Extract from Magistrates’ Court of Victoria Annual report

2013-2014 – ‘Specialist Courts & Services”• Issues paper in preparation of strategic planning• Strategic Plan 2014-2017• TOR Consultative & Steering Committees For Specialist

Courts & Court Support Services• De-identified CISP reports• Response to family violence Summary• These slides