Offenders going unchecked after SA Corrections Department staff clock off

South Australians are being put at risk from criminals flouting their home detention conditions, who are increasingly going unchecked after Corrections staff clock off at 11pm.

South Australians are being put at risk from criminals flouting their home detention conditions amid claims that authorities are failing to properly respond to overnight breaches.

Corrections sector sources have told The Advertiser that breaches are being increasingly responded to late or not at all because the Correctional Services Department (DCS) has no compliance staff on the road between 11pm-7am.

DCS is responsible for supervising upward of 1100 accused or convicted perpetrators who are electronically-monitored as part of their bail or community-based order.

Up to four DCS officers are rostered on 24/7 to remotely supervise the offenders from the department’s Electronic Monitoring Centre.

During the day, there are also several mobile teams of officers who can be deployed to a premises if an issue is detected.

South Australians are being put at risk from criminals flouting their home detention conditions.

Issues that arise regularly include offenders leaving their homes without permission, ankle bracelet “strap tampers” or flat batteries in GPS devices.

However, those mobile teams are only rostered on from 7am-11pm – leaving an eight-hour period each night when there are no staff available to follow up.

If an alert is raised overnight, the remote monitoring officers attempt to resolve it by making contact with the offender.

But, if the offender is unreachable and the issue cannot be resolved, the officers are required to refer the matter to SA Police.

The Advertiser has been told police are called several times each week but, due to their own workload, they are increasingly unable to attend incidents.

Proposals to roster mobile teams on overnight shifts have been met with safety concerns because DCS officers are unarmed and do not wear body cameras.

A spokesman for the Public Service Association said the union has raised these kinds of staffing issues with DCS over a long period of time, and warned “the community at large must not be put at risk due to short-sighted staffing decisions by DCS”.

“Offenders living in the community on home detention need to be adequately monitored around-the-clock by DCS staff, and those staff need to be equipped and resourced to do this work safely,” he said.

In response to questions, a DCS spokeswoman said “it is not appropriate for the department to discuss staff deployment in either prisons or community corrections, for safety and security reasons”.

“The Monitoring Centre, which runs 24/7, responds to alerts with either DCS staff, a case management response, or by referring to SAPOL,” she said.

“DCS is adequately resourced and confident in its ability to respond to breaches and to notify the relevant authorities.”

The spokeswoman said electronic monitoring may be used as a condition on a range of community correction orders including intensive bail supervision and home detention.

“It is one of many tools used by community corrections staff to monitor a person’s compliance to their community-based order,” she said.

“Ultimate responsibility for compliance rests with the person subject to the order. Suspected breaches are actioned and reported to the relevant releasing authority.”

Originally published as Offenders going unchecked after SA Corrections Department staff clock off