In Julie Stubbs, et al. (2023). Rethinking Community Sanctions: Social Justice and Penal Control. Leeds: Emerald Publishing. Ch. 6, p. 139.
COMMIT Parole, Northern Territory (Australia)
The NT’s Compliance Management or Incarceration in the Territory (COMMIT) Parole programme offers another case study of the way certain ideologies and theories of rehabilitation, in this case RNR, TJ and rational choice, have guided interventions for people under community sanctions. COMMIT is a high intensity community supervision programme aimed at reducing breaches of community-based orders, parole revocation and imprisonment intended for people assessed as medium or high risk on the LSIR-SV. It is based on the principles of ‘swift, certain and fair’ justice, and aims to achieve behavioural change by sending a consistent message about personal responsibility and consequences through a consistently applied ‘sanctions matrix’ of graduated prison sanctions of up to 30 days for non-compliance (Department of the Attorney-General and Justice, n.d.).
COMMIT was introduced in 2015 as a pilot programme for those on suspended sentences before being extended to parole through amendments to the Parole Act (NT) in 2017. It is modelled on Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation and Enforcement (HOPE) programme, which similarly emphasises ‘close monitoring, frequent drug testing, and swift, certain and fair sanctioning’ for non-compliance (Williams, 2021, p. 5). Initial randomised controlled trial evaluations of HOPE produced positive results including reductions in missed probation appointments, drug use, and contact with the criminal legal system (Hawken & Kleiman, 2009). However, the most recent evaluation evidence from other US jurisdictions where HOPE has been extended has not found it produced positive outcomes, despite it being implemented successfully with high fidelity (Cowell, Barnosky, Lattimore, Cartwright, & DeMichele, 2018; Zajac, Dawes, & Arsenault, 2021).