Legal Aid NSW Criminal Law Division
Jul 22, 2026 · 33 min · 10 segments
Episode 29 of the 5 Cases Podcast; Is everyone at CLANT? Caitlin and Paul are jealous but review 5 cases for you on the topic of fitness in the Children's Court; costs in the Local Court; The rule in…
Caitlin AkhtarHost
Well, this week before we get into the cases, let's, uh, say hello and give a shout-out to some listeners who've made contact.
So Osman Samin and, uh, Scott Corish, Taylor Regan from Australian Law Advocates, Kim Hamerton at NAAJA, Georgie Henderson from Legal Aid Coffs Harbour, and Patrick Leal, who's a, um, last-year JD student at UNSW.
What about Tony Mudditt?
I want to hear it now.
Well, Tony Mudditt brought to my attention, because of a case we were running, that for the first time I can remember, we had a client who we could actually refer to the Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Centre.
I have not.
You need to explain it to me.
Well, it didn't really have a lot of relevance for me, and probably a lot of people listening will think it didn't have a lot of relevance for them because before the 27th of March this year, you needed to show that you had been living in a particular address in a particular catchment area, and they'd slowly expanded that, so Sydney Metro, and then they, um, have expanded that a little bit.
But also only particular courts could refer them, and I just never had any clients that met those particular criteria.
But from the 27th of March this year, so it's already in place, any local court, any district court in all of the state can refer a person to the Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Centre.
They still have some important eligibility criteria, so the court would refer them post-sentence and, um, that person has to have 18 months left to serve on their non-parole period.
Um, so they, yeah, they have to be within that criteria, and they have to be able to live in one of these expanded catchment areas, which includes the Central Coast, so it's a lot wider than it used to be.
But they don't have to prove that they usually live there or they previously lived there, just that they have the ability to live in one of those catchment areas.
So basically, the eligibility has hugely expanded, and Tony and I were recently able to refer a client from the Albury District Court, um, hopefully into the Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Centre.
All that's required is after sentence, the judge says, "I order that the person be referred for consideration to the drug court." So there's actually an obligation on the courts to consider whether the person is eligible and make that referral if they fit the criteria, which means although I'm telling you this is a really, really exciting thing, and that's how I look at it, I also need to tell you that there's an obligation on everybody out there when they're having people sentenced to at least 18 months left to serve on the non-parole period.
Well, this week before we get into the cases, let's, uh, say hello and give a shout-out to some listeners who've made contact.
So Osman Samin and, uh, Scott Corish, Taylor Regan from Australian Law Advocates, Kim Hamerton at NAAJA, Georgie Henderson from Legal Aid Coffs Harbour, and Patrick Leal, who's a, um, last-year JD student at UNSW.
What about Tony Mudditt?
I want to hear it now.
Well, Tony Mudditt brought to my attention, because of a case we were running, that for the first time I can remember, we had a client who we could actually refer to the Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Centre.
I have not.
You need to explain it to me.
Well, it didn't really have a lot of relevance for me, and probably a lot of people listening will think it didn't have a lot of relevance for them because before the 27th of March this year, you needed to show that you had been living in a particular address in a particular catchment area, and they'd slowly expanded that, so Sydney Metro, and then they, um, have expanded that a little bit.
But also only particular courts could refer them, and I just never had any clients that met those particular criteria.
But from the 27th of March this year, so it's already in place, any local court, any district court in all of the state can refer a person to the Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Centre.
They still have some important eligibility criteria, so the court would refer them post-sentence and, um, that person has to have 18 months left to serve on their non-parole period.
Um, so they, yeah, they have to be within that criteria, and they have to be able to live in one of these expanded catchment areas, which includes the Central Coast, so it's a lot wider than it used to be.
But they don't have to prove that they usually live there or they previously lived there, just that they have the ability to live in one of those catchment areas.
So basically, the eligibility has hugely expanded, and Tony and I were recently able to refer a client from the Albury District Court, um, hopefully into the Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Centre.
All that's required is after sentence, the judge says, "I order that the person be referred for consideration to the drug court." So there's actually an obligation on the courts to consider whether the person is eligible and make that referral if they fit the criteria, which means although I'm telling you this is a really, really exciting thing, and that's how I look at it, I also need to tell you that there's an obligation on everybody out there when they're having people sentenced to at least 18 months left to serve on the non-parole period.
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