Use of a Criminal Record

One of the issues that criminal justice clients report when trying to access to drug and alcohol rehabilitation services is their exclusion from treatment on the basis of having a criminal record. Obtaining a criminal record can be much harder than expected, and when relying on data from criminal records to assess criminal justice clients for suitability in your service it is important to consider a number of factors:

What are you determining by using the criminal record?
Getting a copy of a person's Criminal Record
Reading and Interpreting a Criminal Record
Addressing Agency Safety Concerns - A Referral Form for Criminal Justice Clients

What are you determining by using the criminal record?

Determining what your agency needs the criminal record for can assist in streamlining processes for your organisation and client, offer alternative ways to gather the information you need, or cut down frustration and waiting times and associated costs with obtaining a full criminal record.

Is it to determine staff and client safety?
Is it to determine to a person's eligibility for your service?
Is it to determine the treatment / case management response the client will receive from your service? Click here for more information Working with Criminal Justice Clients.

Getting a copy of a person's Criminal Record

Accessing a person's criminal history record can be difficult. Ultimate ownership of all criminal records belongs to the NSW Police Force, not Corrective Services NSW. When applying to Corrective Services NSW for a potential client's criminal record, it is important to remember they can't always provide a full criminal history. Legally, Corrective Services NSW cannot provide a criminal record without the ex-prisoner's consent, and many ex-prisoners are reticent to give permission due to the stigma of a record.

All agencies must apply to the NSW Police Force and receive a client's consent before a full criminal record is obtained. Criminal history records are held at the police station where the person was initially arrested. Currently it costs $152.00 to obtain one and takes approximately two weeks to arrive.

Reading and Interpreting a Criminal Record

Once an individual's criminal record is obtained, reading and interpreting the information can be difficult for a person who does not work in the criminal justice system. This can lead to information being misinterpreted. For example, a criminal record gives no background information on how the offence occurred; it only lists the offence type. The offence type, Resisting Arrest, can mean a person was verbally abusive or physically abusive and can range from swearing to a violent encounter. It is interpreted by the arresting Police Officer and their discretion. The detail of the circumstances surrounding a person's arrest and why particular charges were laid by police are not given on the criminal record. It is recorded on a document called a Charge Sheet used by the courts when determining sentencing. Charge Sheets are not available when requesting a person's criminal history. This example shows how an offence type is open to interpretation that could result in the exclusion of a person from receiving treatment. A person's criminal history does not include all the information required for a service to make an informed decision.

Agencies such as Corrective Services NSW (including Community Offenders Services, previously known as Probation and Parole) have access to an internal record system called OIMS (Offender Integrated Management System). OIMS is a record of a person's custodial sentences, including the current offence they are being incarcerated for and any other previous offences if they resulted in a period in custody. OIMS also records prisoner case plans and any internal prison issues (issues which occurred while on parole will also be recorded here). In order to access information held in an OIMS record, an agency must seek consent from the inmate/parolee giving permission to disclose information to that specific agency only. OIMS records are not full criminal history records.

Getting a person's criminal record from within Corrective Services NSW can be a time consuming process. Welfare workers in prison have a population of thousands to work with and individual officers have very high caseloads (often less than one welfare worker to 150 inmates). Obtaining a criminal record may take time or may not be possible. Unfortunately this can result in people not being able to access community based drug and alcohol treatment services, as there are few resources in correctional centres to be able to provide the information.

When assessing the eligibility of individuals for your service, remember that people with and without criminal records may pose occupational health and safety issues for staff and clients. Some people may not disclose their criminal history and other people may never have been involved in the criminal justice system but could still have histories of aggression and violence. While it is important to assess each client individually, the best practice a service can employ to ensure the safety of all its staff and clients is to follow universal safety precautions in working with all clients.

Addressing Agency Safety Concerns - A Referral Form for Criminal Justice Clients

In order to take account of the occupational health and safety needs of your service and the rights of the client to receive a service if they do have a criminal record you could consider the following:

Decide as an agency what offence types you will not accept into your service e.g. arson (this will vary from service to service).
Design a referral form that specifically asks about what offences they have been convicted of.
You can choose as many offence types as you feel necessary.
Phrase all questions so the referrer has to provide a yes or no answer.
If the referrer answers 'no' to all offence types you have listed, then you will be able to accept the referral without further offence information.
If the referrer answers 'yes' to any of the offence types you may then decide to seek further information or to reject the referral.

Click here to download an example of such a form

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