NCJ Number
78668
Journal
Australian Crime Prevention Council Forum Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: (1981) Pages: 7,9,11,13-15
Date Published
1981
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the proposals of the Australian Law Reform Commission regarding the punishment of Federal offenders.
Abstract
The Commission's report outlines three main directions that sentencing reform should take: greater consistency and uniformity in the punishment of Federal offenders, the provisions of more alternatives to imprisonment, and establishment of an adequate Commonwealth victim compensation scheme. The Commission also proposes that an Australian sentencing council be established to promote consistency as a matter of good management and organization of the criminal justice system, without so much reliance on the chance factors existing at present. A second suggestion of the Commission's report is that parole in the case of Commonwealth offenders should either be abolished in its present form or be significantly overhauled. However, the report frankly acknowledges the difficulty of abolishing Federal parole without similar moves in the States. It suggests that if parole abolition is rejected or delayed, important reforms of Federal parole should be implemented, including (1) introduction of standard nonparole periods and remissions for all Federal prisoners and (2) amendments to the language of the Commonwealth Prisoners Act so it uniformly applies throughout Australia. The article notes that the Commission intends future study of the particular problems of punishing and sentencing drug and narcotic offenders. One bar graph and footnotes are provided.