Alleged offenders to be released due to 'lack of beds'
The NSW government wants police to release more alleged criminals on conditional bail before they front court to reduce "current pressures on remands' beds", the Daily Telegraph reports.
The Baird government began trialling a Bail Assessment Officer (BAO) program in June this year to ensure magistrates grant bail to more alleged offenders – often exceeding their lawyers' requests.
Citing an internal memo, the newspaper reports the state's justice department now wants to provide police departments with further powers of assessment, placing the onus on sergeants to release people who have just been arrested into the community before they even front court.
"The Justice Department is initiating a related project (to the Bail Assessment Officers) to assist/change bail sergeants to facilitate bail," the memo states.
"Increasing the number of 'Police Bail Granted' and reducing the number of 'police bail refused' will reduce the number of release applications and will reduce the current pressures on remands' beds."
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The trial would apply only to those offenders who would be unlikely to go to jail.
A "pilot program" is expected to be trailed in the Liverpool Local Area Command in Sydney's southwest if it receives the green light, the Daily Telegraph reports.
An unnamed senior officer told the paper it "puts all the onus back on the station sergeant and if the person reoffends the attorney-general's department can say it was a police decision".
Due to overcrowding, the Department of Justice is favouring BAOs in order to reduce the number of offenders held in remand.
"Specifically, BAO are expected to have an impact on bail application turnaround times and the number of people in remand," internal documents state.
The officers are to assist magistrates with balanced and informed recommendations that focus on community safety and the offenders' showing up in court, the document reads.
The BAO program is currently is being trialled in Parramatta Local Court, Parklea Correctional Centre, Central Local Court and Metropolitan Reception and Remand Centre and will likely be rolled out state-wide if successful.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton said Tuesday that bail laws were tightened in 2014 but there will be "no extension of the role of Bail Assessment Officers without the support of NSW Police".
