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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 casemanagement 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