New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CRIMES (SENTENCING PROCEDURE) ACT 1999 - SECT 78

78 Suitability of offender for home detention

(1) A home detention order may not be made with respect to an offender’s sentence of imprisonment unless the court is satisfied:

(a) that the offender is a suitable person to serve the sentence by way of home detention, and

(b) that it is appropriate in all of the circumstances that the sentence be served by way of home detention, and

(c) that the persons with whom it is likely the offender would reside, or continue or resume a relationship, during the period of the offender’s home detention have consented in writing to the making of the order, and

(d) that the offender has signed an undertaking to comply with the offender’s obligations under the home detention order.

(2) In deciding whether or not to make a home detention order, the court is to have regard to:

(a) the contents of an assessment report on the offender, and

(b) such evidence from a probation and parole officer as the court considers necessary for the purpose of deciding whether to make such an order.

(3) A court may, for any reason it considers sufficient, decline to make a home detention order despite the contents of an assessment report.

(4) A court may make a home detention order only if an assessment report states that, in the opinion of the person making the assessment, the offender is a suitable person to serve a term of imprisonment by way of home detention.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (1) (c):

(a) the consent of children below a prescribed age, and

(b) the consent of persons suffering a prescribed disability,

may be given on their behalf by such other persons as the regulations may determine or may, if the regulations so provide and subject to any prescribed conditions, be dispensed with.

(6) A home detention order must not be made if the court considers it likely that the offender will commit any sexual offence or any offence involving violence while the order is in force, even though the offender may have no history of committing offences of that nature.

(7) If a court declines to make a home detention order with respect to an offender’s sentence of imprisonment despite an assessment report that states that the offender is a suitable person to serve the sentence by way of home detention, the court must indicate to the offender, and make a record of, its reasons for doing so.