New legislation passed by State Parliament is aimed at improving the treatment and management of people with mental impairment in the justice system.
The Criminal Law (Mental Impairment) Bill 2022 overhauls Western Australia’s outdated mentally impaired accused laws.
Attorney General, John Quigley said the new laws would play a significant role protecting the human rights of persons with mental impairments in the justice system, ensure procedural fairness, and bring the State into line with best practice in other States and Territories.
“It will expand the disposition options available to the Judiciary so that community supervision orders are available for both those acquitted on account of mental impairment and those found unfit to stand trial,” Mr Quigley said.
“The new legislation will limit the terms of custody orders to ensure they align with the likely sentence the court would have imposed if they were sentencing the person in the ordinary course, having found them guilty of the offence.”
He said the introduction of procedural fairness provisions provided for the rights to appear, appeal and seek review of decisions made by the courts and the new Mental Impairment Review Tribunal.
“Rewriting this legislation was a significant and complex task. The previous laws had been in operation for more than 25 years without significant amendment and had been subject to justifiable criticism since their inception,” Mr Quigley said.
“It was high profile cases like that of Marlon Noble, an Indigenous man who spent 10 years in jail without being convicted of a crime, that were the catalyst for change to the current laws.”
He said a significant amount of work was required to implement the reforms and it was expected to take about 12 months.
