Between Bail and Sentence: the conflation of dispositional options.

Source: (2004) Current Issues Criminal Justice. 15: 220-236.

In 2002, report Arie Freiberg and Neil Morgan, the New South Wales (Australia) Parliament enacted the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Criminal Justice Interventions) Act. The Act introduced the “intervention program orderâ€? into the range of options available to a court at the following points in the criminal justice process: after an arrest but pre-trial, or after a finding of guilt or a conviction. Freiberg and Morgan describe this order as a new species of dispositional outcome. They claim that on the face of it the purpose is laudable – the purpose being to reduce re-offending by having the offender participate in a rehabilitation, treatment, or restorative justice program. Freiberg and Morgan, however, fault the means by which this purpose is pursued. They argue that an order which can be used as a condition of bail, as a deferred sentence, or as a condition in a good behavior bond raises significant issues as to the dividing between bail and sentencing. With this in mind, they explore the problematic nature of bail and the increasing use of non-traditional bail conditions to provide interventions that are normally the province of sentencing courts.