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Attorney-General John Rau backs jail-time reduction reform

SENTENCE discounts for criminals who plead guilty could place too much power in the hands of lawyers and ignore victims' rights, the Opposition says.

SA politician John Rau, Attorney General, Minister for Justice and Minister for Tourism.
SA politician John Rau, Attorney General, Minister for Justice and Minister for Tourism.

CRIMINALS who plead guilty before their cases reach trial would be handed major jail-time reductions as the Government moves to slash court backlogs.

Opposition justice spokesman Stephen Wade today indicated the Liberals would attempt to block the reform announced by Attorney-General John Rau.

The decision means the Government will likely be forced to win agreement from the Greens, Family First and independents in the Upper House to bring the policy into law.

"Giving sentencing discounts for early guilty pleas is common sense that why it already happens under the common law," Mr Wade told AdelaideNow today.

"The Opposition is not inclined to support the government in making it mandatory to force judges to let offenders out earlier than they should be.

"In the interests of justice, judges need to be able to take into consideration all the circumstances of the case the contrition of the offender, the impact on the victim, the way the proceedings were managed.

"We need to make sure that we don't forget the victims here. The prosecution and the defence shouldn't be able to manage the process, applying some sentencing formula, and ignore the rights of victims."

Mr Rau today unveiled the reform, pledged as the first in a string of changes to the South Australian justice system.

The state's most "heinous" offenders would be barred from the deal, which delivers sentence reductions of up to 40 per cent for early guilty pleas.

Mr Rau said he expected the reform to dramatically reduce the number of doomed trials choking the courts system.

Judges have discretion to cut sentences when early guilty pleas are entered, but mandating the deal would boost the incentive in many cases, he said.

The Government claims encouraging early guilty pleas will also limit "anxiety and stress" for crime victims and potential witnesses.

The policy will be released for public consultation before being refined and submitted for Cabinet approval.

The sliding scale gives criminals a:

40 PER CENT maximum discount for pleading guilty within six weeks of arrest or summons.

30 PER CENT maximum discount for a later plea submitted before committal for trial.

20 PER CENT maximum discount for a plea made after committal and up to four weeks before the trial date.

No sentence discounts will be offered for guilty pleas made within a four-week period leading up to trial.

Mr Rau conceded serious court backlogs were stalling the carriage of justice.

"I'm very concerned to make sure that that congestion certainly doesn't get worse, and hopefully improves," he told The Advertiser yesterday.

Mr Rau said a definition of which offences were too serious to attract the discount would be made during consultation.

"What I mean by these heinous criminals are people like child sexual offenders, recidivist violent criminals, and those sorts of people," he said.

"Whether we need to be explaining that any more in the Bill is one of the things I would expect to get feedback on."

Mr Rau said a major statistical improvement in court operations should be recorded within 12 months of the policy coming into force.

He also forecast phased announcements of further reforms to increase efficiency in the courts over "the next few months".

"There's been a snowballing of issues relating to the courts," he said.

"Unfortunately there is no single cause for the congestion in the courts and there is no single solution."

Critics are expected to attack the policy as a backdown from the Government's "tough on crime" stance and a long-overdue response to systemic problems that have been apparent for years.

Mr Rau denied the apparent need for urgent reform was evidence of inaction by former Attorney-General Michael Atkinson.

"Rather than my predecessor having done nothing about this, this work would not be ready yet if it were not for the work he did do," Mr Rau, pictured right, said.

He said he hoped to introduce the changes to Parliament by the end of the year.

Victims Rights Commissioner Michael O'Connell said sentences must remain appropriate for the crime committed.

"In any decision that's made around prosecution, the victim should be consulted and genuine consideration should be given to their point of view," he said.

"If you look at some of the sentences that are given by the court, if you discount them by 40 per cent, some people would not really be serving any time of imprisonment at all."

In April the state's leading judges and lawyers demanded the Government to make clearing the choked justice system a priority.

In a report to Mr Rau, 13 Supreme Court judges warned the time to finalise criminal cases would continue to blow out unless more courtrooms were constructed and upgrades carried out.

Lawyers warned easing the backlog required thinking "outside the square".

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Original URL: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/attorney-general-john-rau-backs-jail-time-reduction-reform/news-story/1081a5dd55862584b7a9ae9ea8738918