Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia v Williams

Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia v Williams - [2007] WASC 95 - WASC 2007 case summary — Zoe

[71]

"STONE, MR: ... The application today is for orders in terms of section 17 of the Dangerous Sexual Offenders Act 2006. Before we perhaps embark upon the full hearing, I wonder whether I could raise a couple of preliminary matters to perhaps narrow the issues, so to speak.

Firstly, your Honour would be aware from the papers that the respondent put forward two proposals for accommodation and they have been deemed unsuitable and at this stage there appears to be no proposal being put forward by the respondent as to where he would reside, whether it be in a rural setting or in the metropolitan area. I raise that because that impacts upon the type of orders and conditions that would be imposed if your Honour were minded to order a supervision order within the community.

In relation to the treatment programs that are available and that are being recommended for Mr Williams, I was informed this morning, after discussion with Ms Capel - she is the senior clinical intervention officer and her report is towards the back of the first book. She has taken some advice from the people that she works with in the corrective services and their advice is along the lines that at present there are no treatment programs suitable for Mr Williams in a rural area, so there's none whatsoever.

In a custodial setting, she advises, there are intensive treatment programs that are suitable for him. The indigenous sex offender treatment program is one of them and there's a substance abuse program. However she advises that the programs that were available in Bunbury are now fully booked up but there may be programs in other custodial settings, but the Bunbury one is fully booked up.

Insofar as the metropolitan area is concerned, she advises that the treatment programs available there are what she describes as of low intensity and not suitable for someone such as Mr Williams. He would need personalised, individualised counselling insofar as the treatment programs were he to embark upon them insofar as they are concerned.

The difficulty that she raises - and I suppose it's there in the background of everything - is that we have this new legislation in place but there's a lack of resources sometimes to back up and I just thought I would raise those matters with your Honour because at the end of the day the objects of the legislation and what is being sought in terms of section 17 - one is concerned with the community's interests and the community's protection and also the needs of the person to be released.

It seems that his accommodation proposals impact on the treatment programs and also, to a large extent, on what each of the various psychiatrists that we were planning to call have to say because it seems at this stage that they would be talking or giving evidence in a vacuum, so to speak, in terms of where his setting is, where he is to be placed and what sort of programs there are."

[77]

"I may be able to add something more from a practical perspective, your Honour, and that is that the acceptability could be seen as related to the manageability and the circumstances with Mr Williams as they are at present are that there are certain risk factors which are, as yet, unaddressed for various reasons which, in their current state of being unaddressed, may be not managed at present and, therefore, the risk is there. If those risk factors were managed, and I believe that they are manageable, then it's possible that the risk could be more acceptable if things were being done to manage the risk factors because then that would improve the chances that he would not reoffend.

...

VELTMAN MS: If we turn now to the kind of treatment that you believe would assist Mr Williams - because it seems clear that you do believe treatment would assist Mr Williams, yes?---Just to draw a distinction between treatment being medical treatment or a therapeutic intervention as opposed to management of various factors in his life, I think the risk factors which need intervention are his tendency to use alcohol as a coping mechanism and also therefore his coping skills generally. His placement in the community would need to be such that it was not placing him in undue close contact with children but also that wasn't a stressful environment for Mr Williams. I know that has presented a problem because he has expressed a preference to live in a rural area, but that would of course result in difficulties with supervision, but a metropolitan setting may be stressful for him and impact on his ability to cope. The other major issue is, of course, the as yet unaddressed sexual deviancy, or at least not satisfactorily addressed at this stage. Other issues are that he is not a particularly resourceful person, in my experience with him. Having said that, I feel that the sort of approach that needs to be taken with Mr Williams is that it would be ideal before his release if he were able to undertake the indigenous sex offender treatment program. However, his fears about his safety are very difficult for him to overcome at the moment and he has found it very difficult to be reassured about that. It may be that there is something the Department of Corrective Services can offer or can help with him in terms of his concerns about that. The other thing is, due to what I find to be his lack of resourcefulness, I think that he requires the assistance of a case manager, a corrections officer, somebody that would be able to look at suitable accommodation for him, assist with liaising with family. I understand from Mr Williams that his own attempts to communicate with family have been difficult and of late they have not been accepting his phone calls. I also understand that he received a letter from Outcare that told him that as far as they were concerned he was still a remand prison and couldn't help him and he ran into a brick wall there and I think that Mr Williams wasn't quite sure how to overcome those hurdles. I think with the assistance of a case manager or corrections officer some of those practical barriers may be more negotiable. Case management might also make it more possible that he could be assigned a mentor in the community, somebody that would be a contact person, a support person, with preferably an indigenous background or somebody with a cultural awareness and sensitivity. Mr Williams has indicated his willingness to undertake whatever substance abuse rehabilitation program may be imposed and lastly Mr Williams did suggest that as an option in the event that he was unable to avail himself of a sex offender treatment program or was unable to be kept out of satisfactory range of children, then he would entertain on a voluntary basis undergoing some hormonal treatment to provide some degree of reassurance.

...

And what are your feelings about a supervision order for Mr Williams?---It comes back to my original point and that is that his risk factors at the moment are not adequately managed and so I believe that that would set Mr Williams up for failure at the present time and further intervention should be achieved first.

Is there any way that you could see this intervention occurring in the community?---As with all sort of, if you like, discharge planning and planning for release into the community, the process of managing this wouldn't be able to begin once he was released into the community. It would need to begin prior to release into the community.

Have you got any idea of how long prior this would need to be?---Unfortunately, no, I can't offer any comment on that. That would depend entirely on the resources and processes within the Department of Corrective Services.

One of the things that Dr Tanney considered at the end of his evidence was provision of assistance through Mental Health Services. Is there anything that you think about that or you could add to that?---I don't believe that Mr Williams would qualify for treatment within the Mental Health Services at this stage.

...

... Sure. My first suggestion is that any community supervision be highly structured. Unfortunately I'm not in a position to comment as to how often, how many times per week or where he should report and so forth. That's a matter for the Department of Corrective Services and the court. I believe that he will benefit from participation in a community based sex offender treatment program, whether group based or individual counselling. I don't have the depth of knowledge of the services within the Department of Corrective Services to know whether such a service exists or whether there's sufficient numbers for an intake at this time. He may benefit from referral to a community based anger management and substance program such as - I believe there may be one available through the offender services branch of the Department of Corrective services. The last comment relates really to his fear of entering an institutional sex offender treatment program and I have said here that there has been some acceptance of responsibility and an expression of remorse for his offences and that his refusal to enter a treatment program is based on the potential threat of harm and that in the event that a supervision order was considered, given the challenges that Mr Williams may face in meeting strict reporting conditions or avoiding proximity to children, he should be provided with the opportunity to receive (indistinct) consent - hormonal, anti-libidinal medications which is the point I was making earlier.

...

... To answer your earlier question, if I may, additional conditions that should be considered - or not conditions but circumstances from a psychiatrist's point of view really relate to what I was talking about earlier, and that is that he should be assigned a case manager and he should be assisted with accommodation. He should be - he should have a mentor in the community, who is culturally sensitive and appropriate, who can assist him with stress management and be a contact person - assist him with avoiding alcohol to deal with stress and so forth.

Now, you heard what Dr Tanney had to say about naltrexone and urinalysis. What is your opinion on the value of urinalysis and/or naltrexone use for substance abuse - alcohol abuse, in particular?---I'm not an expert in substance abuse rehabilitation. So what I can offer the court is limited in that respect but I agree with what Dr Tanney said."

[79]

"STONE MR: ... Dealing with Mr Williams, can you tell the court what treatment programs are available in a rural environment if that was where he sought to be placed in due course?---Okay. When we look at treatment programs there's two areas we would have to look at. We would have to look at custodial services and we would have to look at community based services. If we're talking in a rural area, for community based services I have been instructed by my manager that there are currently no resources available for the provision of those services within the community. Services are provided within Bunbury Regional Prison. However, a program that was due to run has all the people that are going to be on it. So that's where the services would be in a rural area.

I take it the treatment programs are the indigenous sex offender treatment program. Is that ?---One of the programs that is run is the indigenous sex offender program. That's run at Greenough. It's currently not running at the moment due to a lack of resources. The other programs that we do run within the custodial environment are a medium intensity sex offender program which is run at Karnet and Bunbury and we also have an intensive sex offender program which is run at Bunbury and also Casuarina.

McKECHNIE J: But they are the ones that are booked out?---Sorry, your Honour?

Is that the one that's booked out, in Bunbury?---The one in Bunbury was, yes. It's an intensive sex offender program. It's due to start very soon. They already have the numbers for the program. There is one due to start in Casuarina in May and they haven't selected the participants for that yet.

STONE, MR: The other program is a substance abuse program?---Yes.

Again, I take it that's available in a custodial setting but not in a rural environment. Is that right?---The substance abuse programs that we run are available within custody settings. We don't have any substance abuse programs through our branch run in the community. Community Justice Services also operate programs but I am not familiar with their suite of programs that they have and where they run them, but from my branch which is attached to a prison division we do not have programs in the community.

If Mr Williams were to reside in the metropolitan area what can you tell the court about the availability of the programs that we have mentioned and their suitability to Mr Williams?---In the community in the Perth metro area we run a community based sex offender treatment program. That is actually designed for people of a low to moderate risk that have a lower number of treatment needs. Mr Williams probably would not be suitable for that program. The other provisional services that we could have would be an individually designed counselling program for him and that would have to be based on a comprehensive assessment in consultation with an indigenous programs development officer.

If I can just go back to the low intensity program. You have said it's not suitable for Mr Williams because it deals with the low to moderate risk factor?---Yes, and also the treatment needs.

And the treatment needs. But how often do people participate? On what frequency are they required to turn up?---Those programs run over a duration of about six months and there's one weekly session of three hours' duration. The programs within the prison environment run for longer because they're of a higher intensity.

Are you saying that there isn't within the metropolitan area an equivalent of the intensive program that's run ?---No, because the most need we have would be from the custodial environment because that's where most of the highest risk, highest need sex offenders are placed on custodial orders.

If Mr Williams were to have an individualised, personal treatment program, how would one go about that, from your point of view?---Okay. What we would need to do - we would need to conduct an assessment of Mr Williams. It would probably take a number of weeks to do that. We would have to consult the indigenous programs development officer and that would be based on identifying what Mr Williams' particular needs are and how we could tailor a service to meet those needs so that it's culturally relevant particularly and, as I said, the assessment would probably take a number of week, to do that, and then it would be about how and when we could provide that service.

Do you know whether or not the resources are available at present for such ?---The resources are extremely limited at the moment for individualised services because most of our money goes into providing prison-based programs. I did speak with my manager and she said, "Well, if it was court ordered we would have to provide a service." How long that would be is really something I feel I can't comment on because we don't have - it's not a funded service, so I can't say this is what we operate and this is exactly what we can provide. It would be an individual basis and it would have to be reviewed at certain periods as we went along.

[81]

"VELTMAN MS: You said that most of these services are provided in a custodial setting because there's no need in the community or ?---No, I didn't say there was no need in the community - basically that the majority of need was in the custodial environment. I mean, government services are funded to provide particular services and need demands where those services are provided.

So if there were a number of people that had a particular need in the community, then there would be a service provided within the community?---Not necessarily. It would depend on government funding and we're only funded to provide a certain number of services and run certain programs, so that's something that you would have to check with departmental managers in relation to that.

But if you were ordered to, you would provide services?---Look, if we were ordered by the court, we obviously have an obligation to provide a service but that doesn't mean that we would put someone into a program that was not suitable because that would be considered to be counterproductive.

But individual treatment, for instance?---That's probably the only option we would have available to us and that's something that would seriously have to be looked at, as to how that would be implemented and funded.

Do you have any knowledge of substance abuse programs that are available?---Community or custody?

Community?---No, it's not the area where I work in but community justice services have programs. I'm not sure what they would have suitable and there are other community based agencies that run programs but we would be looking at something that would be culturally relevant and was able to provide an intensive level of service. I'm just not familiar with what those programs are in Perth.

So you wouldn't be familiar with the criteria for entry to those either?---No, sorry. I couldn't comment on that.

It seems from what you have been saying that there are these two separate organisations that - there's community justice services and you're from within the prison. Is that right?---Yes. We have a number of different business units within a department. I work with the Department of Corrective Services and I come under the offender services branch and within that branch I come under offender programs. We come under adult custodial division. That's where the funding comes from and that's where we provide our services. Then we have community justice services and they provide, obviously, community supervision of people who are on orders and they also have their own programs division and they provide particular programs.

You were talking about tailor making - the concept of tailor making a service for Mr Williams and you said you felt that it would take a number of weeks for an assessment to occur--Yes.

Would it be possible, do you think, for that to initially occur within the prison setting while accommodation and other requirements were organised and then move that into the community setting?---Look, I think it would be most appropriate for that to occur within a custodial setting. One of the issues that we have if we're looking at delivering any type of program or intervention is that accommodation and community support is essential to the success of these endeavours. So that would be something we would have to seriously look at as to what that actually entails but it probably would be wise to start the assessment from a custodial - the time that he is actually in custody.

...

Are you aware if there are any indigenous peer support officers in the community?---Not in the community. They are all provided within custodial services."

[91]

"... Let me first outline the principle upon which I'll give my answer, the principle being that Mr Williams certainly, in my mind, needs more than just a one hour appointment once a week, the reason for that being that the nature of the psychological factors that everyone has identified within the report are such that he needs to come into a therapeutic session, go out into his life, experience some of the stresses and difficulties for a very short period of time before he comes into his next session again. I'm not sure what full time therapy meant. I don't know whether that meant seven days a week, five days a week or whatever, but if it was in the community, it wouldn't be more than five days a week. So already we're talking about being left to his own devices over the weekend, typically speaking. For myself, I would regard him as needing to be seen two or three - I'd say - for myself, if he was referred to me, as a clinician I'd be wanting to see him three times a week, the reason being that the impact of what we're doing in therapy needs to be intensive across his life to begin with. That's in the early stages of therapy. That can be dropped down to weekly sessions at some point - a point measured not so much in time, or at least not a time I can give you now, but more in response to the key dynamic risk factors shifting significantly, so clinical progress - the key risk factors being his capacity to cope in a socially acceptable way with intense emotional distress, and even low levels of emotional distress, and his capacity to do so without falling back into a pattern of drinking. My formulation, if you like, of Mr Williams' psychological risk factors is that that coping difficulty lies at the heart of all the other risk factors, and that's what I mean by a sequence that is tailored to the individual. That's where I would begin. With all of the other things sitting on top of it - the drink refusal training, the support and protective behaviours training for family members, it all needs to be in place in a very intensive way to begin with. Might I say one more thing that has really only just occurred to me as I was speaking? If he were - I would hold that opinion almost regardless of what he were to do in prison.

I don't quite understand what you're saying there?---That in order to manage his risk upon release, that's the nature of the release plan that I believe this man needs.

Yes?---Doing more alcohol programs or abusive training or whatever in prison I don't think would really change that a great deal. He needs to address his problems in the context with which those problems are problematic for him and a risk to the community. I say that on the basis of the information that I got from talking to prison officers who manage him is that he doesn't show the same level of problematic behaviour, or virtually no level of the problematic behaviours that bring him undone in the community and lead him back to drinking. He doesn't show them in the structured environment of a prison. From a psychological point of view he is not learning through imprisonment to change the factors that he needs to change in the community. Aspects of his dynamic risk factors relating to sexual deviance and ways of controlling it, programs that can be done in prison or can be done in the community will be equally effective."

At a glance

Court

Decision date

Before

Catchwords

Source

Catchwords

Judgment (104 paragraphs)

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA -v- WILLIAMS [2007] WASC 95 (26 April 2007)

Parties

Legislation Cited (2)