Police v Kinnara Connors [2022] ACTMC 6

• 20 year old Aboriginal youth – childhood exposure to family violence, drug and alcohol abuse and separation from carers and loved ones – racism and interruption of education
• Evidence of ‘extraordinary progress’ made during engagement with Worldview Foundation program providing holistic life management programs and employment opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people facing disadvantage: at [55]-[59]
• In considering appropriateness of Intensive Corrections Order referred to Bugmy Bar Book, ‘Impacts of Imprisonment and Remand in Custody’ (November 2022)

[65] In considering whether to impose an ICO, it is necessary to have a realistic appreciation of the potential negative consequences, for you and for the community, of a term of imprisonment served in full-time custody: see, e.g., Bugmy Bar Book, Impacts of Imprisonment and Remand in Custody (November 2022). Imprisonment is often seriously detrimental for the person detained, particularly when they are young and have never served a sentence of imprisonment before: Dixon (1975) ACTR 13, 19-20. Opportunities and incentives for rehabilitation are limited and forced cohabitation with those convicted of criminal offences can operate as ‘a catalyst for renewed criminal activity upon release’: Boulton [2014] VSCA 342 [107]-[108]; 46 VR 308, 334.

[66] In your case there is little doubt that to sentence you to a term of imprisonment to be served in full-time custody would bring to an end and potentially reverse the progress you have made towards rehabilitation.