A more structured relationship between Corrections and other services is an additional feature of specifi c community-based responses.
Regarded as the ‘gold standard’, the Gold Coast Domestic Violence Integrated
Response incorporates a partnership between the local hospital, a specialist court, a specialist women’s support service, an MBCP of 24 weeks duration and Corrections. The women’s service, MBCP and Corrections offi ce are all co-located, enabling information sharing and consultation to occur easily. Like responses in the US, men’s compliance with conditions of orders – including VIOs - are monitored closely by probation and reported to the MBCP and women’s service, as well as to the court.460
Partnerships such as this, however, need not be confi ned to post-conviction monitoring, with the Calgary Homefront program referred to earlier using probation offi cers to monitor participation, even though defendants are on peace bonds and therefore not yet convicted offenders.461
457 The Chief Justice of Western Australia has noted that, the longer an offender is in prison, the more likely he is to return. Martin CJ, at http://www.supremecourt.wa.gov.au/_fi les/Outcare%20AGM%20Martin%20CJ%2029%20Oct%202014.pdf. 458 Cited in Salter, above note 123.
459 Sentencing Amendment (Community Correction Reform) Act 2011.
460 Consultation Rosemary O’Malley, Manager, Men’s Domestic Violence Program, and CollaborACTION, above note 262. 461 Tutty et al, above notes 125 and 386.
On a wider note, some jurisdictions are taking a more comprehensive approach to monitoring and treating offenders.
The Colorado Domestic Violence ‘Offender’ Manager Board was established:
to evaluate and facilitate treatment and ongoing monitoring of post-plea domestic violence offenders on probation or parole, community orders or deferred sentence.462 The Board has developed standards for evaluation, treatment and monitoring and
established an application and review process for providers. The Board has representation from the District Attorney’s office, victims’ groups, police, the judiciary, counsellors, social workers, as well as relevant government departments.
Under the Board’s supervision, trained Multidisciplinary Treatment Teams share information and make informed decisions related to risk assessment, treatment, behavioural monitoring and offender management with consensus required for initial placement in treatment, change to the risk level of offenders463 and discharge from treatment.
Differing levels of intervention are available after intake evaluation is conducted. Level A, or low risk, offenders are those who do not have an identified pattern of ongoing abusive behaviours, have a pro-social support system, minimal criminal history and no evidence of substance abuse or mental health issues. These offenders are required to attend 90 minute group clinical sessions once a week. Level B offenders are required to attend group sessions as well as additional clinical interventions, while Level C offenders who have multiple risk factors are required to attend a minimum of two interventions per week, one to address core competencies and one treatment session such as a cognitive skills group, substance abuse or mental health issues group.
This kind of tiered response has not been developed in Australian jurisdictions with offenders who are supervised in the community. Nor has it been properly considered in terms of offenders who are sentenced to a period of incarceration, custodial and post-release settings presenting an opportunity for treatment that is currently not being seized.464
Commentators note that, in part, this failure is because few offenders convicted of offences specifically identified as related to domestic violence receive custodial sentences of any length. In fact, one Australian analysis of 20,000 cases found that less than one in five offenders received a prison sentence following conviction for ‘assault occasioning bodily harm’ against an intimate partner. The study found that it was only when the conviction was for a more serious offence of ‘recklessly causing grievous bodily harm’ that a prison sentence was likely.465 Gondolf
notes that the majority of domestic violence convictions in the US are also at the misdemeanor level, and so do not attract a custodial sentence.466
This means that the majority of domestic violence offenders in custodial settings are not eligible for the long term rehabilitation programs that are increasingly being directed at other violent,
462 Minns, above note 262. Colorado Domestic Violence Offender Management Board, Standards for Treatment with Court Ordered Domestic Violence Offenders. At http://sites.google.com/a/state.co.us./dcj-domestic-violence/. See also Tracking Offenders in Treatment Project. At https://drive.google.com/a/state.co.us/file/d/o.
463 Offenders can be moved based on new information, although moderate and high risk offenders cannot be moved down to a low risk assessment. Ibid.
464 Northern Territory Council of Social Services (NTCOSS), Submission to NT Department of Attorney-General and Justice, NT Domestic & Family Violence Reduction Strategy, January 2014.
465 NSW Bureau of Criminal Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) Criminal Courts Statistics 2010, http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov. au/bocsar/bocsar_mr_ccs2010.html.
466 Gondolf 2012. Breckenridge & Hamer, above note 253 observe that this is a problem with a wide range of offending, the principle of proportionality preventing offenders from accessing substantial intervention.
or serious sexual, offenders.467 This is especially disappointing when, as referred to earlier,
experts such as Gondolf have identified that immediacy and intensity, rather than just length, of intervention both have particular value.468
Nevertheless, the Tangentyre Council’s integrated program referred to above has commenced conducting intake assessments in custodial settings to prepare family violence offenders for more intensive interventions post-release.469 The MBCP program manager for the Gold Coast
Integrated Response advised that they were considering doing the same in the near future.470
The CIJ also heard that, in South Australia, a number of prisons have begun to organise White Ribbon events in an effort to raise overall awareness.471
There is no reason, however, to limit such interventions to those convicted of - and in custody for - specific family violence related offences. Instead, Corrections and other environments should be viewed as additional opportunities for identifying and reaching perpetrators of family violence, even where they are not present in the system in that specific capacity.