Not enough rehabilitation-prospects: study

The study by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research compared the two types of good-behaviour bonds offenders are placed on when they are released from jail.

The first is a supervised one, where offenders have to report to their parole officer regularly and prove they are staying out of trouble. The second is an unsupervised bond.

The bureau's Dr Don Weatherburn says his study tracked more than 4,000 offenders under supervision and compared them to offenders on unsupervised bonds in the six years after their release. He says the type of bond makes no difference.

"Putting people under supervision doesn't reduce the risk of reoffending," he said. "They're just as likely to reoffend if there's no supervision involved."

Dr Weatherburn surveyed parole officers to find out why and they blamed a lack of rehabilitation services for alcoholics and drug addicts, as well as insufficient mental health facilities.

"Not enough is being done to deal with the factors that get people involved in crime in the first place," he said.

"There's not enough drug and alcohol treatment, not enough success in getting accommodation or dealing with the employment problems that these offenders have in the community".

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Reduced sentence for female sex offender

A 35-year-old Melbourne woman who had sex with a 15-year-old boy has received a reduced jail sentence because treatment is not available to female sex offenders in custody.

Bianca Aleida Smulders, 35, formerly of Pakenham, wept in the dock as she was sentenced in the Victorian County Court on Thursday to at least 12 months in prison.

Smulders had pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16, and was also charged with breaching an intervention order.

The court heard the parents of the victim, who cannot be named, became suspicious of Smulders last July after realising she had bought gifts including cigarettes, CDs, a mobile phone and an iPod for their son.

The pair had sex in the back of Smulders' car and a caravan at her home on about 18 different occasions between July and October last year, the court heard.

An intervention order was taken out against Smulders on October 18 last year, but the court heard Smulders breached the order by sending letters to the victim.

The pair also had sex in Smulders' car at the Bunyip State Park, in Melbourne's outer east, while the intervention order was in place.

They each also sent more than 2,000 mobile phone text messages to one another up until November 3, when Smulders was taken into custody, the court heard.

In sentencing, Judge Geoffrey Chettle said authorities claimed that Smulders be treated no differently to any other sex offender because she was a woman.

He noted the maximum penalty for sexual intercourse with a child under 16 is 10 years in prison.

Judge Chettle sentenced Smulders to 36 months in prison, with a non-parole period of one year.

He said he set a "longer than usual parole period" in order for Smulders' to seek treatment for her offending while on parole.

He said he did this because courses for sexual offenders were not available to women in prison.

"You will not be able to benefit from a sex offenders course while in custody," he said.

Judge Chettle said Smulders' guilty plea and the genuine remorse she had shown for her actions, also entitled her to a substantial reduction in sentence.

Smulders has already served 187 days of her prison sentence.

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'Fantasy' led to sex with girl, 12

A 27-year-old man who had a year-long sexual relationship with a 12-year-old neighbour has been jailed for three years.

The man was living with his father and stepmother when he began "grooming" the girl.

No parties to the matter, including the judge, can be named for legal reasons.

The prosecutor told Melbourne County Court that the man wooed his teenage neighbour with flattery.

"The prisoner would tell the complainant how gorgeous she was, he would say she looked like Drew Barrymore," he said.

He told the court the pair would go on walks and to the movies together and that the man gave her a mobile phone.

"This was part of his grooming (of her) providing her with a clandestine means of communication," the prosecutor said.

The court heard the man told the girl he loved her. They discussed waiting to have sex until she was 16 so it would be legal, but a few weeks later he sent her a text message that said: "F--- it, we should have sex, we should not have to wait because we are in love."

The pair had sex regularly between July 2001 and July 2002.

Counsel for the man said his client suffered depression and was living in a fantasy world at the time.

His psychologist told the court a symptom of his depression had been a fantasy of a stable and loving relationship that would lead to marriage and children.

Today, the judge said he accepted the defence's submissions and agreed that the man's sentence be reduced, because of his mental state and the significant delay between charges being laid and his case coming before the court.

"You lived in a fantasy world and were not able to think rationally or act accordingly," the judge said.

"You are not a predator or pedophile and are not likely to re-offend in the future."

But he said the charges were very serious and demanded a term of imprisonment.

"The offending involved some level of grooming and planning," he said.

"The complainant was young vulnerable and the court has to take into account that these types of offences were introduced to protect the young persons who are susceptible to these types of approaches."

He said the victim felt she had been robbed of her childhood because of the relationship.

The man pleaded guilty to four representative counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and was sentenced to 36 months jail with 26 months suspended.

Tough new laws for sex offenders

The Victorian Government will introduce tougher laws to protect people from serial sex offenders.

Premier John Brumby has announced plans to extend supervision orders to cover sex offenders who attacked adults. The orders previously only applied to convicted child sex offenders.

Under the new laws, serial rapists could be made to wear electronic bracelets or be confined to houses within prisons.

Mr Brumby said the new laws will target the worst offenders who continue to pose a risk.

"There will be a range of mechanisms including reporting, not being able to move house, informing the department if you are planning to move interstate," he said.

"A whole series of steps in place to ensure those who have committed the worse crimes in the past are properly supervised or monitored post release."

Civil libertarians have expressed reservations about new laws on sex offenders.

Liberty Victoria says the proposed laws may affect the rehabilitation of sex offenders.

Liberty Victoria spokesman Brian Walters SC says the Government has not justified the need for such changes.

"Clearly there's a community value in having someone reintegrated into the community and if they're under extended supervision by the authorities, that stops that process in its tracks," he said.

"It smacks of populist policy without careful consideration of the effect this will have on the criminal justice system and on human rights."

The shadow Attorney-General Robert Clark says the proposed laws do not go far enough.

"We believe that laws to protect the community against serious offenders shouldn't just apply to sex offenders. They should apply to all serious offenders who are high risk to the community, including murders and arsonists," he said.

Mr Brumby says the new laws would only apply to a handful of offenders.

Related:

Abusers free without treatment
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Juvenile detainees sharing single cells

SEVERE overcrowding in the state's juvenile detention centres is forcing young people to share cells designed for one person, to sleep on mattresses on the floor and be held in "segregation" rooms usually used as punishment cells.

The Department of Juvenile Justice is shifting detainees who have turned 18 to adult jails despite judges' orders their sentences be served in juvenile detention until age 21 because of special circumstances that can include immaturity, mental health problems and rehabilitation prospects.

Some detainees have been unable to get a place in the centres' schools, and rehabilitation programs are under pressure, staff said.

A departmental spokesman admitted yesterday that some detainees had shared cells on mattresses as "a temporary measure to deal with unexpected surges" in numbers, and youths had been moved to adult jails.

Detainee numbers surged after the NSW Government's changes to the Bail Act in November as well as increased policing, the spokesman said.

Counsellors and lawyers are concerned that vulnerable young people and model detainees who have responded to rehabilitation will come to grief in adult jails.

"My fear is that you get high-risk young people who don't want to be moved into adult prisons becoming another death in custody - all for the sake of a friggin' bed," said Bradley Freeburn, a co-ordinator at the Aboriginal Medical Service.

The State Government amended a law two years ago to enable the department to override a judge's orders detaining young offenders after their 18th birthday. But until the overcrowding problems this year, these orders were countered only if youths were disruptive or a danger to other children, lawyers said.

"A lot of these young people are fodder from DOCS and a high number are Aboriginal kids, and now because of overcrowding they're being funnelled into the adult system," said a centre worker who could not be named.

Ten youths have been transferred this year, and staff said a further 20 are to be moved. A departmental spokesman said the offenders were adults who had committed serious offences including murder, sexual assault and armed robbery.

Andrew Haesler, the deputy senior public defender, has been asked to advise on whether legal challenges to the Supreme Court can be made in two cases to reverse or prevent transfers.

Confidential departmental information shows there were more children than beds in the system virtually every night last month with all nine centres consistently at overcapacity.