Intensive correction orders and community correction orders
The two supervised sentences served in the community instead of custody: what each involves, the conditions, the suitability assessment, and what happens if you breach.
A community correction order is a conviction with supervised conditions for up to three years. An intensive correction order is a sentence of imprisonment, of up to two years, that the court lets you serve in the community under strict conditions instead of in a cell. Both are real sentences with real consequences for breach, and an ICO is not available until Community Corrections has assessed you as suitable.
- If the court has ordered a sentencing assessment report, attend the interview and be honest; it decides whether an ICO is availableSection 4 of this guide
- Sort out stable accommodation, work or study, and a support person; the report asks about all threeSection 4 of this guide
- Read what the conditions actually require before sentence, not afterSection 2 and 3 of this guide
If you are facing an ICO, the court has already decided custody is warranted. The hearing is about whether you serve it in the community, and that is a contest a self-represented person should not run alone.
| CCO | Conviction. Up to three years. Supervision, community service up to 500 hours, curfew, programs, non-association |
| ICO | Imprisonment of up to two years served in the community. Supervision always, plus home detention, electronic monitoring, curfew, community service up to 750 hours, programs |
| Assessment | Required for an ICO; the court cannot make one if you are assessed unsuitable |
| Breach of CCO | Back to the sentencing court; vary, extend, or revoke and resentence |
| Breach of ICO | State Parole Authority; can order the balance served in full-time custody |
1Where they sit
Start here
NSW sentencing law asks the court to work down a ladder and stop at the first order that is adequate. A community correction order sits above a fine and below imprisonment. An intensive correction order sits above it, and it is different in kind: the court has decided that a term of imprisonment is the only appropriate penalty, has set the term, and has then decided the term can be served in the community under intensive supervision. An ICO is a sentence of imprisonment. It is written up as one, it counts as one for the spent convictions scheme and for later sentencing, and breaching it can put you in custody for the balance.
Legal basis: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) ss 5, 7, 8. This is a summary for general understanding. The full provisions are more detailed and may not apply in all circumstances.
2Community correction orders
CCO
A CCO is made where a fine or a conditional release order is not enough and custody is not warranted. It always carries a conviction and it can run for up to three years. The standard conditions are that you do not commit any offence and that you appear before the court if called on. The court can add any of the following, and usually adds two or three.
| Condition | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Supervision | Reporting to a Community Corrections officer at set intervals, attending appointments, following reasonable directions |
| Community service | Unpaid work, up to 500 hours, arranged through Community Corrections and completed within the period |
| Curfew | Home between set hours, up to 12 hours in any 24 |
| Rehabilitation program | Drug and alcohol, anger management, traffic offender, or other program participation |
| Abstention | No alcohol, no drugs, or both, with testing |
| Non-association | No contact with named people |
| Place restriction | Not entering named places or areas |
A CCO without supervision and with a handful of hours of community service is at the light end. A three-year CCO with supervision, a curfew and a program is a serious restriction on your life and is often the sentence for someone with a record who the court is giving one more community-based chance.
Legal basis: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) ss 8, 85 to 89A. This is a summary for general understanding. The full provisions are more detailed and may not apply in all circumstances.
3Intensive correction orders
ICO
An ICO is available where the court has decided on a sentence of imprisonment of up to two years for a single offence, or three years in aggregate. The court must then consider whether community safety is better served by intensive supervision in the community than by full-time custody, and community safety is the paramount consideration in that decision. Supervision is always a condition. The court must also impose at least one of the following.
| Condition | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Home detention | Confined to your home except for approved absences such as work or treatment |
| Electronic monitoring | An ankle device tracking your location against your conditions |
| Curfew | Up to 12 hours in any 24 |
| Community service | Up to 750 hours |
| Rehabilitation or treatment | Program participation, often residential for drug matters |
| Abstention, non-association, place restriction | As for a CCO |
Some offences cannot be dealt with by ICO at all: murder and manslaughter, prescribed sexual offences, terrorism offences, breaches of serious crime prevention orders, and offences involving the discharge of a firearm, among others. Domestic violence offences carry an additional restriction: an ICO cannot be made unless the court is satisfied the victim, and anyone the offender is likely to live with, will be adequately protected.
Legal basis: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) ss 7, 66 to 73A. Requires principal review before release: confirm the current s 67 exclusions. This is a summary for general understanding. The full provisions are more detailed and may not apply in all circumstances.
4The suitability assessment
Before an ICO
The court cannot make an ICO without an assessment report from Community Corrections, and it cannot make one if the report finds you unsuitable. The court usually orders the report at the plea or at a mention, and adjourns sentence for four to six weeks while it is prepared. An officer interviews you and looks at your accommodation, your employment or study, your relationships and support, your history of compliance with orders, your drug and alcohol use, and any risk you pose to others or that others pose to you at the address where you would serve the order.
Three things decide most reports. A stable address where the order can be served, and where the other residents consent. Something to do during the day. And an honest interview, because an assessment officer who catches a lie writes it down. If you have been referred for assessment, the weeks before the interview are the time to fix the address and the daytime, not the weeks after.
The same report, or a shorter version, is used when a CCO with supervision is being considered.
Legal basis: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) ss 17C to 17J. This is a summary for general understanding. The full provisions are more detailed and may not apply in all circumstances.
5Breach
Consequences
Breaching a CCO. Community Corrections can deal with a minor breach itself, with a warning or a variation. A serious breach is referred back to the court that made the order, which can take no action, vary or add conditions, extend the order, or revoke it and resentence you for the original offence, with everything on the table including custody.
Breaching an ICO. Breaches are dealt with by the State Parole Authority, not the court. It can warn, add conditions, impose a period of home detention, or revoke the order, in which case you serve the balance of the sentence in full-time custody. The Authority does this on the papers and quickly. A missed appointment is a breach. A positive drug test is a breach. The margin for error on an ICO is small and that is by design.
Legal basis: Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999 (NSW) Part 3 (ICO breach), Part 4A (CCO breach); Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) s 107C. This is a summary for general understanding. The full provisions are more detailed and may not apply in all circumstances.
6What to do if either is on the table
Preparation
The sentence hearing where an ICO or a supervised CCO is being considered is not the s 10(3) hearing described in the guide on section 10. The question is not whether to record a conviction but whether you can be safely managed in the community. The material that answers it: a confirmed address with a letter from the householder, evidence of work or study, a treatment plan already begun for any drug or alcohol issue, references that speak to reliability rather than character, and a clear account of why the last order, if there was one, was breached and what is different now.
If a report has been ordered, confirm your address, get a letter from whoever you live with, and book the first treatment appointment before the assessment interview.
If an ICO or a supervised CCO is being considered
The court has decided the matter is serious. What happens next turns on the assessment report and on submissions about community safety, and both are areas where representation changes the outcome. A consultation with the lawyers who built Standard before the assessment interview is the right step.
Request a consultationGeneral information only, not legal advice. NSW-specific. Every matter turns on its own facts and laws can change. Reading this guide does not create a solicitor-client relationship between you and the lawyers who produced it.