South Australia’s Intensive Bail Supervision program for domestic and family violence (DFV) offenders today received a silver award in the community-led category of the 2021 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPA).

The ACVPA recognise best practice in the prevention or reduction of violence and other types of crime in Australia and play a vital role in highlighting effective community-based initiatives to prevent crime and violence.

South Australia’s Intensive Bail Supervision program for DFV offenders provides an alternative to custody that also has the benefit of improved victim safety due to greater compliance control.

Darian Shephard-Bayly, from the Department for Correctional Services South Australia, said the program is a bail order that combines supervision with requirements to report to a Community Corrections Officer and the use of home detention electronic monitoring with GPS technology. Managed by the Intensive Compliance Unit, the program is the largest of its kind in the nation.

“The Intensive Bail Supervision program provides an alternative option for the management of DFV offenders. The program provides an obvious benefit of greater compliance control, among other benefits including improved safety outcomes for victims of DFV,” said Mr Shephard-Bayly.

“It’s a privilege to accept this award on behalf of the SA Department for Correctional Serevices. We as an agency are really proud of what has been achieved since the introduction of our Intensive Bail Supervision program,” he said.

These annual awards recognise the outstanding contributions being made across Australia for crime prevention, including the development and implementation of practical projects to reduce violence and other types of crime in the community.

Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) Director, Michael Phelan APM, said that this program provides an important alterative to offender remand options and helps achieve successful bail compliance.

“This is an excellent initiative being looked at across Australia to effectively address and reduce recidivism and increase the perception of safety for victims of DFV,” said Mr Phelan APM.

All projects are assessed each year by the ACVPA Board, which is chaired by the AIC Director and consists of senior law enforcement representatives from each state and territory police service.

The awards are a joint Australian Government, state and territory initiative administered by the AIC.

For more information about the award winners, visit www.aic.gov.au/acvpa

To watch the ceremony please visit AIC YouTube channel, CriminologyTV.

Originally published on Australian Institute of Criminology website.