If you have been charged with a criminal offence and either plead guilty or are found guilty by the court, your matter has to proceed to a Sentence Hearing. Prior to your Sentence, your team of expert lawyers will guide you to prepare numerous documents to rely upon in mitigation.
However, if either the charge is serious or you have a prior criminal history (particularly of the same offending), the court may require a Sentencing Assessment Report before handing down the sentence. This is usually where the court is exploring alternatives to full time imprisonment or your suitability for community service work.
If the magistrate requests a sentencing assessment report, the matter will have to be adjourned for at least 6 weeks to allow for preparation by Community Corrections.
You will usually have 7 days, unless ordered differently by the court, to contact Community Corrections to arrange an interview time with them.
Your local community corrections office may require documents from you or a home visit, if necessary. This is determined on a case by case basis.
When preparing for your interview with community corrections, a non exhaustive list of questions you can expect are as follows:
Your attitude towards the offending (in order to establish whether you have insight and accept responsibility);
Your understanding of who the offending effects (yourself, the victim, community, police etc);
What was going on in your life just prior to or at the time of the offending;
What steps you have taken after the offending to address it (eg alcohol counselling, anger management etc);
Whether you have any mental or cognitive health issues;
If so, what you are doing to address it (if anything);
Whether you have any addictions;
What you do for work or study, and whether this would impact your suitability to engage in community service work;
Where you live with the victim and what measurements are in place to reduce re-offending;
Whether there is risk of harm to anyone else;
Whether there are any self harm risks and is so, the extent of it;
Whether you have any criminal history;
Whether you have support from others in the community;
Whether you’re willing to engage in any supervision or community service work that could be imposed by the court.
