Crimes Mental Impairment consultation paper.pdf - Victorian Law ...

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8.17 In terms of the review of supervision orders, the CMIA also provided for:
• a new process for the variation and revocation of supervision orders, including
processes for the review of supervision orders, and clarified the criteria on which the
review should be based
• a ‘comprehensive system of reports’ in relation to people subject to supervision
orders, to ensure that they have regular reviews and are not lost in the system 6
• a major review by a court into each person subject to a supervision order to consider
whether to release the person or reduce the degree of supervision to which the
person is subject following the expiry of the nominal term. 7
8.18 The CMIA established new procedures for granting leave to people subject to custodial
supervision orders. 8 The CMIA established an independent body—the Forensic Leave
Panel—to be the main leave decision-making body. The Forensic Leave Panel was
established to increase the transparency and accessibility of the leave process that the
Governor’s pleasure system lacked. 9 The CMIA introduced four different types of leave
with more specificity on their nature and durations. The Forensic Leave Panel makes the
decisions on the majority of leave applications.
8.19 In both the review and leave process, the CMIA introduced the right of people subject
to supervision orders to appear at hearings and more substantial appeal rights. It also
provided for the greater involvement of family members of people subject to supervision
orders and victims, including provisions for notification to and consultation with family
members and victims where the court is considering releasing the person or substantially
reducing the degree of supervision to which the person is subject.
Pathway for gradual reintegration
8.20 The CMIA system of supervision has been characterised as ‘gradualist’ 10 or ‘staggered’, 11
in recognition ‘that the treatment and reintegration of people with a mental disorder
is most appropriately considered on a gradual basis’. 12 The CMIA therefore envisages
a pathway for release for a person subject to a supervision order, where a person on
a custodial supervision order receives increasing leave entitlements (from on-ground
leave, both supervised then unsupervised, to off-ground leave, both supervised then
unsupervised, and then extended leave), eventually ‘graduates’ to a non-custodial
supervision order and is finally released following revocation of the non-custodial
supervision order. 13 A key question for the Commission’s review of the CMIA is whether
this staggered pathway for release is operating well in practice for all people subject to
supervision orders (for both people with a mental illness and people with an intellectual
disability or cognitive impairment (see Chapter 3)).
6 Victoria, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly, 18 September 1997, 188 (Jan Wade, Attorney-General).
7 Ibid 185.
8 Ibid 186.
9 Ibid 185.
10 Ian Freckelton, ‘Applications for Release by Australians in Victoria Found Not Guilty of Offences of Violence by Reason of Mental Impairment’
(2005) 28 International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 375.
11 Janet Ruffles, ‘The Management of Forensic Patients in Victoria: The More Things Change, The More They Remain the Same’ (PhD Thesis,
Monash University, 2010).
12 Victoria, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly, 18 September 1997, 186 (Jan Wade, Attorney-General).
13 For example, section 32(3) of the CMIA provides that the court cannot vary a custodial supervision order to a non-custodial supervision
order unless the forensic patient or forensic resident has completed a 12-month period of extended leave.
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