Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER OF PRISONERS ACT 1997 - SECT 46

(1)

A sentence of imprisonment imposed by the transfer country or Tribunal that is to be enforced in Australia under the continued enforcement method or the converted enforcement method is taken, for the purpose of enforcement of the sentence of imprisonment in Australia on transfer of the prisoner or Tribunal prisoner to Australia under this Act, to be a federal sentence of imprisonment and the prisoner to be a federal prisoner.

(2)

Any period of the sentence of imprisonment as originally imposed by the transfer country or Tribunal served by the prisoner or Tribunal prisoner before the transfer is taken to have been served under the sentence of imprisonment as it is enforced under this Act.

(3)

A prisoner or Tribunal prisoner who is transferred to Australia under this Act may, while serving a sentence of imprisonment imposed by a transfer country or Tribunal that is enforced under this Act, be detained in a prison or hospital or other place in a State or Territory.

(4)

Any relevant Australian law, or practice or procedure lawfully observed, concerning the detention of prisoners applies in relation to the prisoner or Tribunal prisoner on and after that transfer to the extent that it is capable of applying concurrently with this Act.

(5)

Without limiting subsection (4), Australian law and practice and procedure relating to the following matters are applicable to a prisoner or Tribunal prisoner who is transferred to Australia under this Act:

(a) conditions of imprisonment and treatment of prisoners;
(b) release on parole of prisoners;
(c) classification and separation of prisoners;
(d) removal of prisoners from one prison to another;
(e) removal of prisoners between prisons and hospitals or other places or between one hospital or other place and another;
(f) treatment of mentally impaired prisoners;
(g) eligibility for participation in prison programs, including release under a pre-release permit scheme (however called);
Note: See, for example, subsection 19AZD (3) of the Crimes Act 1914 .
(h) temporary absence from prison (for example, to work or seek work, to attend a funeral or visit a relative suffering a serious illness or to attend a place of education or training);
(i) transfer of prisoners between States and Territories.

(6)

The prisoner or Tribunal prisoner is entitled to any remission or reduction of the sentence of imprisonment imposed by the transfer country or Tribunal that is to be enforced under this Act for which the prisoner would be eligible in accordance with any applicable Australian law if the sentence were a sentence of imprisonment for an offence against a law of the Commonwealth.

(7)

Nothing in this section prevents the transfer country or Tribunal from pardoning or granting amnesty to or quashing or otherwise nullifying the conviction of a prisoner serving a sentence of imprisonment imposed by the transfer country or Tribunal in Australia in accordance with this Act, or from commuting the sentence.

(8)

Nothing in this Act imposes any financial responsibility on the Commonwealth to maintain a prisoner transferred under Part 4 of this Act in a prison, or hospital or other place, in a State or Territory unless the prisoner has community ties with the Jervis Bay Territory, the Territory of Christmas Island or the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands.