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What Are Sentencing Options in NSW?
Attending Court is often stressful, especially if you need clarification on the potential sentencing options that the Court may prescribe to your offence.
At The Australian Legal Practice, we work to provide you with transparency about the Court process with advice tailored to your charges.
Depending on the seriousness of your offence, by law, jail is often the last resort. As such, the Court must consider all alternative sentencing options before sentencing an individual to imprisonment.
Engaging experienced sentencing defence lawyers, like those at The Australian Legal Practice, can alleviate some of the worry associated with attending Court by providing clear information about sentencing options.
Reforms to sentencing came into effect in late 2018 and altered many of the penalties now in place.
No Conviction – section 10
If you are seeking a non-conviction, section 10 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 provides the orders that the Court may impose for a ruling of no-conviction.
These are as follows:
- s 10(1)(a) an order dismissing the relevant charges
- s 10(1)(b) an order discharging a person under a Conditional Release Order (CRO)
- s 10(1)(c) order discharging a person on condition of participation in an intervention program.
Conditional Release Orders (CRO)
Conditional Release Orders (CRO) were introduced in the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Amendment (Sentencing Options) Act 2017.
CROs were established as a replacement for good behaviour bonds. The Court can impose CROs with or without a conviction for a maximum two-year period.
The sentencing Court may choose to impose a section 10(1)(b) conditional release order (CRO) after taking into consideration under section 9(2):
- Your character, antecedents, age, health and mental condition
- Whether the offence is of a trivial nature
- The extenuating circumstances in which you committed the offence
- Any other matter the Court thinks proper to consider.
Section 9(3) of the legislation further stipulates that a CRO cannot be imposed concurrently with a fine but may be used as an alternative.
Additionally, a sentencing court may impose supplementary conditions on a CRO. The conditions are noted in section 99 of the Act and range from requirements to attend rehabilitation to restrictions prohibiting places you can visit.
CROs are usually given to individuals who do not present a risk to the community, are charged with less significant offences or are first-time offenders.
To find out your chance of being sentenced to a CRO, contact our sentencing defence lawyers today on (02) 8084 9929.
Community Corrections Order (CCO)
If the Court does not consider your offence serious enough for a custodial sentence, a Community Corrections Orders (CCOs) may be imposed by the sentencing court as an alternative to imprisonment. You can only be subject to a CCO for a maximum of three years.
Put simply, under section 88(2) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Amendment (Sentencing Options) Act 2017, the standard conditions of a CCO are that:
- You must not commit any offence,
- You must appear before the court if called on to do so at any time during the term of
the CCO.
Additional conditions may also be imposed by the Court. These are found under section89(2) of the Act and include:
- a curfew
- a community service work condition
- a rehabilitation or treatment condition
- an abstention condition
- a non-association condition
- a place restriction condition
- a supervision condition
Intensive Correction Order (ICO)
An Intensive Correction Order (ICO) is the strictest order a sentencing Court can make other than imprisonment. You can only be given an ICO if the prison sentence for your offence is less than two years for a single offence. If you have committed more than one offence, the maximum prison term must be less than three years to be sentenced to an ICO.
The sentencing Court will always consider community safety before issuing an ICO.
Section 67(1) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 provides several offences where an ICO will not be available to the sentencing Court. These include:
- murder or manslaughter
- a prescribed sexual offence
- a terrorism offence
- an offence relating to a contravention of a public safety order
- an offence involving the discharge of a firearm
The safety of domestic violence victims is also paramount to the sentencing Court. Therefore, an offender will not be sentenced to an ICO if the Court has reasonable grounds to believe that there is a risk to the victim or any person the offender may reside with.
Need to attend Court for sentence?
If you are going to Court for sentence, you need our sentencing defence lawyers. Contact us today on (02) 8084 9929. Our team has the experience and dedication to defend your charges at sentence.
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