When a person is sentenced for criminal offences in New South Wales, there is a range of penalties that can be imposed. The most serious of these is a term of imprisonment. In New South Wales, a term of imprisonment can be structured in a number of different ways. These are outlined below.
Sentences of imprisonment
Under section 5 of the Sentencing (Crimes Procedure) Act 1999, a person may be sentenced to imprisonment only if no other penalty is appropriate. If a person is sentenced to a term of imprisonment of less than six months, the court must give reasons for deciding that no other penalty is appropriate and for deciding not to make an order allowing the defendant to take part in a treatment or rehabilitation program.
Parole
Under section 44 of the Sentencing (Crimes Procedure) Act 1999, a court that sentences a person to a term of imprisonment must generally set a non-parole period. This is a date before which the prisoner will not be released on parole.
If a person is sentenced to less than three years imprisonment and a non-parole period is set, they will automatically be released on parole when that date is reached.
If a person is sentenced to more than three years and a non-parole period is set, they may apply for parole to the NSW State Parole Authority after their non-parole period has finished.
Parole is designed to integrate offenders back into the community before the end of their sentence.
A person who is granted parole lives in the community under supervision and subject to strict conditions. If they comply with these conditions and do not reoffend, they do not have to return to prison. However, if parole is breached, they may have to return to prison to serve the remainder of the sentence.
Concurrent and consecutive sentences
Sometimes a court sentences a person for more than one criminal matter on the same occasion. This may mean that more than one term of imprisonment is imposed at the same time. When multiple custodial sentences are imposed at once, the court may order them to be served concurrently, consecutively, or partly concurrently.
When sentences are served concurrently, they run at the same time. When sentences are served consecutively, one is served after the other.
Aggregate sentences
An aggregate sentence is the amalgamation of terms of imprisonment imposed for more than one offence.
When terms of imprisonment are imposed for multiple offences, each term must be appropriate for the severity of the offence, but the total effective sentence must also reflect the severity of the offending as a whole.
This is known as the totality principle.
Intensive corrections orders
A court that sentences a person to a term of imprisonment of up to two years for an offence (or up to three years for more than one offence) may order that the term be served as an Intensive Correction Order (ICO) in some circumstances. However, this order cannot be made if the person is being sentenced for certain very serious offences such as murder, a terrorism offence or a child sex offence.
When a person is sentenced to an intensive correction order, they are permitted to live in the community subject to conditions and supervision by community corrections. The court can also impose additional conditions such as an electronic monitoring condition or a home detention condition.
Remand
Many of the men and women who are incarcerated in New South Wales prisons are being held on remand. This means that they have been charged with offences, but the matter has not been finalised and they have not been granted bail.
A person who is on remand remains in custody until their matter is finalised or until a court grants them bail under the Bail Act 2013.
If a person who has been on remand is sentenced to a term of imprisonment, the start date of that term will usually be backdated to the date they first went into custody.
Prisons in New South Wales
New South Wales currently has 34 correctional facilities. The majority of these are government-operated but some are run by private companies. The Junee Correctional Centre, which has been privately operated for the last 30 years, is to be handed back to the government in 2025 due to concerns by the state government about the effects of prison privatization.
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