Reintegrating Sex Offenders into the Community

Queensland Government, A New Public Protection Model for the Management of High Risk Sexual and Violent Offenders (June 2008) <www.dcs.qld.gov.au/Publications/News_and_Events/News/HighRiskoffendersReportJune08.pdf> at 27 August 2008.

Ibid 3.

Ibid 7–8.

Baldry Eileen McDonnell Desmond Maplestone Peter Peters Manu , ‘Ex-Prisoners and Accommodation: What Bearing do Different Forms of Housing have on Social Reintegration of Ex-Prisoners?’ (Paper presented at the Housing, Crime and Stronger Communities Conference, Australian Institute of Criminology and the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Melbourne, 6–7 May 2002) 4.

Borzycki Maria Baldry Eileen , ‘Promoting Integration: The Provision of Prisoner Post-Release Services’, (2003) 262 Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice 2.

Offenders who occupied public housing before they were incarcerated may return to the Department of Housing on release to be greeted with an unpaid debt. This affects their chances of securing housing from that source: see Baldry , above n 4, 12.

See, eg, the comments made by Justice Chesterman in Attorney-General for the State of Queensland v Toms (No 4470 of 2006, 8 April 2008). Toms was arrested for breaching a supervision order that said that he could not consume alcohol. Justice Chesterman asked ‘[w]as he drunk? Did he cause any problems?’ When Ms Maloney for the Attorney-General said ‘[n]o’, Justice Chesterman remarked ‘[L]et the man have a drink.’

Ibid.

Baldry , above n 4, 4.

Levenson Jill S Cotter Leo P , ‘The Impact of Sex Offender Residence Restriction: 1,000 Feet from Danger or One Step from Absurd’ (2005) 49(2) International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 168–78.

Baldry , above n 4, 12.

DPSOA s 13(6).

For an illuminating debate, see Allen Ernie Strossen Nadine , ‘Megan's Law and the Protection of the Child in the On-Line Age’ (1998) 35 American Criminal Law Review 1319–41.

Personal communication, Reeanna Moloney, Prisoners Legal Service, 11 March 2008.

Keyzer Patrick Blay Sam , ‘Double Punishment? Preventive Detention Schemes under Australian Legislation and their Consistency with International Law: The Fardon Communication’ (2006) 7 Melbourne Journal of International Law 407–24.

For further consideration of these issues, including the (lack of any) relationship between the principles underpinning sentencing in criminal trials and the approach taken in DPSOA cases, see Keyzer Patrick Pereira Cathy Southwood Stephen , ‘Pre-emptive Imprisonment for Dangerousness in Queensland under the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003: The Constitutional Issues’ (2004) 11 Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 244–53, particularly 250–1.

Fardon v Attorney-General (2004) 223 CLR 575.

See McSherry Bernadette , ‘Sex, Drugs and “Evil” Souls: The Growing Reliance on Preventive Detention Regimes’ (2006) 32(2) Monash University Law Review 237–74.

See Keyzer Patrick , ‘Preserving Due Process or Warehousing the Undesirables? To What End the Separation of Judicial Power of the Commonwealth?’ (2008) 30 Sydney Law Review 101–14.

Attorney-General v Fardon (Unreported, Philippides J).

Attorney-General v Fardon [2003] QSC 379, [2] ( White J ).

Ibid.

Attorney-General v Fardon [2003] QSC 200; Attorney-General v Fardon [2003] QSC 379; A-G v Fardon [2003] QSC 331.

Attorney-General v Fardon [2003] QSC 379 at [102].

Fardon v Attorney-General (Queensland) (2004) 223 CLR 575–619.

Attorney-General v Fardon [2005] QSC 137.

[2005] QSC 005.

Attorney-General for the State of Queensland v Fardon [2005] QSC 137.

DPSOA s 27(1).

Attorney-General v Fardon [2003] QSC 331 [19]–[24] ( Atkinson J ); Attorney-General v Fardon [2003] QSC 370 [23] and [25] ( White J ); Attorney-General v Foy [2005] QSC 1 [11] ( Douglas J ).

Williams v The Queen (1986) 161 CLR 278, 292 ( Mason Brennan JJ ).

Attorney-General v Fardon [2003] QSC 331 [21] ( Atkinson J ).

Plaintiff S157/2002 v Commonwealth (2003) 211 CLR 476 [30] ( Gleeson CJ ).

[2005] QSC 381. This case is considered further in Keyzer Patrick O'Toole Suzanne , ‘Time, Delay and Nonfeasance: The Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 (Queensland)’ (2006) 31(4) Alternative Law Journal 198–202, 200–1.

Queensland Corrective Services, The Management of Convicted Sex Offenders in Queensland (October 2007) <www.correctiveservices.qld.gov.au/Publications/Corporate_Publications/reviews_and_reports/MgtSexOffenders.pdf> at 28 August 2008.

DPSOA s 28. At the time of writing, no cases have been decided which invoke this provision.

See, eg, Grunseit Anne Forell Suzie McCarron Emily , Taking Justice Into Custody: The Legal Needs of Prisoners, Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales, July 2008, 93–107, 261–79.

The DPSOA was enacted with the unanimous support of Queensland's unicameral Parliament (there was one abstention).

Coyle Ian R , ‘Pre-sentence Reports and Risk Assessment’, Frizton K Wilson P (eds), Forensic Psychology and Criminology: An Australian Perspective (2008) 252–66.

Hart Stephen D Michie Christine Cooke David J , ‘Precision of Actuarial Risk Instruments: Evaluating the Margins for Error of Group Versus Individual Predictions of Violence’ (2007) 190 (Supp. 49) British Journal of Psychiatry 60–5; Mullen Paul , ‘Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder and in Need of Treatment’ (2007) 190 (Suppl. 49) British Journal of Psychiatry 3–7.

de Vogel Vivienne de Ruiter Corine van Beck Daan Mead Gwen , ‘Predictive Validity of the SVR-20 and the Static-99 in a Dutch sample of Treated Sexual Offenders’ (2004) 28 Law and Human Behavior 235–51.

Chu Kheng Lim v Minister for Immigration (1992) 176 CLR 1, 37.

Hanson Karl R Bussiere Monique T , ‘Predicting Relapse: A Meta-Analysis of Sexual Offender Recidivism Studies’ (2002) 66(2) Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 348–62; Seager James A Jellicoe Debra Dhaliwal Gurmeet K , ‘Refusers, Dropouts and Completers: Measuring Sex Offender Treatment Therapy’ (2004) 48(5) International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 600–12; Marques Janice K Wiedernaders Mark Day David M Nelson Craig van Ommeren Alice , ‘Results form California's Sex Offender Treatment and Evaluation Project (SOTEP)’ (2005) 17(1) Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment 79–107.

Gelb Karen , Recidivism of Sex Offenders: Research Paper (Sentencing Advisory Council 2007); Wilson N J Wales D , ‘Overview of Treatment: Corrections and Mental Health’ in Fritzon Katarina Wilson Paul (eds), Forensic Psychology and Criminology an Australian Perspective (2008) 186–201.

Nunes Kevin L Hanson R K Firestone Philip Moulden Heather M Greenberg David M Bradford John M , ‘Denial Predicts Recidivism for Some Sexual Offenders’ (2007) 19(2) Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment 91–105.

Hanson Karl R Morton-Bourgon Kelly E , ‘The Characteristics of Persistent Sexual Offenders: A Meta-Analysis of Recidivism Studies’ (2006) 73(6) Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 1154–63.