NCJ Number
103708
Date Published
1985
Length
23 pages
Annotation
After reviewing assessments of some U.S. diversion programs, this paper describes sentencing innovations (reparation, community service order, and community care order) in New Zealand's 1985 criminal justice bill as having potential as pretrial diversion options.
Abstract
Diversion projects in Minnesota ('Operation de Nova'), New York (Project Crossroads), Michigan, and Pennsylvania have all received assessments that note possible discrepancies in results and that advise against replication attempts. Defense lawyers have also consistently been concerned about the impact of diversion on arrestees' legal rights. In 1981, New Zealand's Penal Policy Review Committee recommended sentencing innovations with goals similar to those traditionally associated with diversion, i.e., the development of a community-based response to offenders as an alternative to imprisonment. A 1985 criminal justice bill provides for the following sentencing innovations; reparation (offender compensation for the victim's losses), community service work, and a community care order (requirement for community treatment appropriate to the special needs of an offender). The bill provides for local criminal justice advisory councils, which will ensure the development and availability of community programs for offenders. Although the proposed measures are primarily intended for use by judges at sentencing or during periods after conviction and prior to final sentencing, they are also translatable to pretrial diversionary dispositions. 27 references, reparation forms, and a summary of the seminar discussion following the paper's presentation.