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Criminal Justice Act 2003 The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (alongside the Sexual Offences Act and the Courts Act) is the delivery of the Government's Criminal Justice reforms. The Act has made significant changes to the former custodial and non custodial sentences and has had a major impact upon the work of both the Probation and Prison Services. The Act created a new single Community Sentence called the Community Order for offences committed on or after 4th April 2005. The Community Order has given Courts much greater flexibility in sentencing by allowing them to give more appropriate sentences tailored to each individual offender. Judges and Magistrates are now able to give a Community Order with one or more Requirements depending on the seriousness of the offence and the potential for risk of harm and reoffending that the offender poses. Low seriousness and low risk offenders may be sentenced to a Community Order with just one requirement, high seriousness and high risk offenders three or more requirements. There are twelve requirements in total and these are: •Activity - for example education, training and employment packages of work. •Alcohol treatment - the offender is required to attend treatment to reduce or eliminate dependency on alcohol. •Attendance Centre (if the offender is under 25) - the offender must attend at an attendance centre for between 12 and 36 hours. •Curfew - (with electronic monitoring) - the offender must remain in a specified place for certain parts of the day, for example, someone convicted of a night time butrglary may be confined to their home during the night. •Drug rehabilitation requirement - the offender is required to have treatment to reduce or eliminate their dependency on or tendency to misuse drugs. •Exclusion - the offender may not enter a specified place for a period up to two years. This might include certain streets or shops. •Mental health treatment - the offender may receive treatment for a mental health problem. •Prohibited activity - the offender would be ordered to refrain from participating in activities on a specified day or days or during a certain period. •Programme - these are accredited programmes designed to address the attitudes and patterns of behaviour that contribute to offending. •Residence requirement - the offender would be ordered to reside at a specified place, for example an approved premises (hostel). •Supervision requirement - requires the offender to attend appointments with the Probation Service. •Unpaid work - offenders carry out unpaid work from between 40 and 300 hours. A
new framework for custodial sentences is also planned through custody
plus and custody minus. Click here for a copy of Chapter 44 of the Act.
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