Essay on the Use of Bail in Western Australia

Bail denotes a written promise that a person charged with a criminal offense is entitled at a given date and time. The person undertaking a bond is therefore required to abide by all the necessary conditions set by the court of law. Bail allocation is dependent on some conditions that may range from the health of the individual, criminal record of the victimizer, coherence in the victim allegations, conversation history and record of the victim and the offender while under investigation and much more. Bail offers the individual a chance to operate as a normal free man but is bound to attend all court proceedings at any required time. Bail may either be set by police or a law court. Whenever one is already in court, he or she may only be offered bail by the tribunal about the kind of charge given to them. Bail set by police is subjected to change by the court or cancellation by the court ruling depending on the type of charge the culprit is has been imposed. This article is going to clearly put insight on conditions and circumstances of bail allocation, bail assignment benefits, and analysis of bail criticism by the people of Western Australia through the study of two case studies.

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A case study of domestic violence among the 273 domestic violence cases reported in Western Australia offers a broad basis for this discussion about bail and bail allocation and the society's view about the offenses that the court provides bail. Also, another incidence of a car attack in Melbourne City that involved the Victoria Government court intervention to offer the perpetrator a bail that raised people's eyebrows is also the center of focus for this article. The above cases raise the concern to review bond allocation conditions. According to the laws of the Western Australia State, bail is not guaranteed to be granted but rather depends on the type of offense that an individual is attached to and a signature is needed to indicate that the person under bail is entitled to abide by all the conditions set upon him. What then are the conditions of bail?

Conditions for giving bail to the defendant

Remember that only the individual who appears before the court willingly and without being imposed by external force by the security are the ones who may be given the bail after cross-examination of the kind of case to be handled. The alleged criminal is therefore supposed to submit to a promise by which he or she is made to confess and should attend all court proceedings that he is involved at the exact dates and time the proceedings are scheduled (Stubbs, 2010). Failure to follow the conditions the person's bail is nullified, and therefore the offender goes back to jail until the time the case becomes concluded. According to the case of Bradford a 52-year-old man in Australia, who was alleged to have caused the demise of his Wife Teresa Bradford, bail conditions may vary according to the situation. One of the lawyers who handled the case of Bradford said, "We don't make bad laws as a result of a bad case" showing that bail allocation does not depend on the kind of criminal offense that one does. The statement faced criticism from the public claim that Bradford's offense should not have been given bail since they claimed that the offender had tried to make his wife suffocate and that he was the cause of the death of Teresa.

According to Brown (2013), bail is awarded to an individual if the person can pay the required fee that binds them from not getting away. The money is termed as a personal undertaking. Also, bail maybe imposed on a person if another person can pay the said amount on behalf of the accused if the defendant is not able to raise the required fee. The money paid by a second party is called a surety fee. The accused after an award of bail is bound to be revisiting a police case if and only if the bond was given by the police (Brown, 2013). Police bail is mostly given when the accused has committed a minor offense. According to The Victoria people, they seek reforms to change the award of bail on the offense that one does. According to the Attorney General, he suggests that conditions of giving bail should be reviewed to give some cases an exception for the offer in case the risk is unacceptable.

Also, court bail may be considered with or without giving bail conditions by consideration of factors according to 1982 Bail Act in Schedule 1 and specifically clause 3. the section takes into consideration of the following factors: The seriousness of the culprit is charged with and the nature or kind of offense. In case an attack is tied to creating an insecurity threat to a victim, then the court may or may not give bail to a victim. Secondly, in giving out bail to an alleged lawbreaker also depends on the character of the offender as shown by the profound behaviors of the offender according to conduct report of the individual (Richards & Renshaw, 2013). If the person's behavior statistics are worse, then the court may decide to deny him or her the request in fear of a worse outcome that might be brought about by the offender with a bad reputation.

According to the constitutional law Schedule 1, categorically clause C of Bail Act of 1982, the financial position and more personal information of an individual are scrutinized before granting him or her Bail (Steel, 2009). Also, bail history and occurrence that the offender might have been involved in are thoroughly studied to determine whether the offender is viable. For instance, as the January 23, 2017, internet source, the case of Bradford who was alleged to have been the terminator of Teresa his wife's life. The judges found out that Bradford could not continue to stay in jail and yet according to his statistical behavior he was not attached to any criminal activity. Also, the judges discovered that for the whole 40 days in the cell, Bradford did not make any call to his wife's family members suggesting that he was innocent.

Similarly, according to the 1982 Bail Act, police bail is issued to an offender after the police take into account any likelihood of the person to appear before the court in a given scheduled court hearing. Also, the police always examine whether the individual is likely to cause damage to the evidence or make threats that might alter the effectiveness of the witnesses.

Conditions for compliance of a person while on bail

According to the constitution section, 1 of the 1982 Bail Act Part D, the requirements that one has to meet while servicing under bail include restriction of visitation of specific areas, surrendering of one's passport to the security reinforcement agencies, abstinence from criminal acts and minor offenses and living within one area only. Also, limited contact with particular people, abide by homestead detention, reporting to a nearby police station at a specified interval of days among other as stated by the stakeholders are also in section1 (Steel, 2009). All the above conditions aim at ensuring that the course of justice is not influenced by the offender by either interfering with the onlookers or overall obstruction of the judicial process.

Benefits of Bail

Apart from setting an individual free from staying in jail for some time, jail offers the following advantages to a person:

Gives an opportunity for the defendant to prepare for his or her defense

The defendant can have ample time and conducive environment for finding enough backup evidence to defend the allegations against him by the law.

Safeguard the defendant employment

The release of a person by the issuance of bail allows him or her to protect his job security by giving them a chance to report the issue to their employer for them to be aware of the happening. Also, if a person has got a business that depends on his presence, he or she can get the necessary steps to safeguard it from any loss that might occur while he or she is away.

Bail gives the defendant an opportunity to fulfill their family obligations

The defendant when released on bail, gets a chance to go back to their family and fulfill their family roles.

Bail avoids arrest of the offender

The offender instead of being taken to the cell. It gives the defendant an opportunity to wait for a court action and ruling while operating as an ordinary civilian.

Criticism of bail

Many people have had objections to the way courts and police give bail. On the case of in Victoria in the Western Australia, the issuance of bail to the individual who leads to the tragedy that killed a huge number of people led to so many objections and a call for the review of the court system in giving out of bail. For instance, Andrews of from Victoria said that "We need to have a close look at each and every element of our bail system and we need to make a profound change for the future to keep Victoria safe." Andrew later in his speech to address the issue of the tragedy that happened in Melbourne Shopping mall, announced a review of the court's issuance of bail.

Also, the problem of Bradford and the demise of his wife Teresa in Australia raised many questions and suggestions for the review of the bail act, but the requests were baseless since he had been locked in the cell for 44 days. He was also found to have no criminal record and since the record of an offender can be used to grant him or her bail, the court had no otherwise but to release the man on bail. There was a claim to review the bail act (Lever, 2008).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be noted that the purpose of bail is mostly to free the defendant who in one way or another may be innocent or may have responsibilities attached to him. On the other hand, the benefit of bail is to allow the defendant to gather witnesses who might help him or she defend the allegations against them. Conditions for bail vary from the criminal history of the offender, his actions towards obstruction of witnesses and many other. The criticism about bail are many and mostly come from the people who are affected by the offense. Regarding the cases shown above in the Western Victoria, bail is an appropriate way of setting someone who might be wrongly be detained due to false accusations, but the issuance should be given regarding thorough scrutiny of the defendant.

References

Brown, D. (2013). Looking behind the increase in custodial remand populations. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 2(2), 80-99.

Basten, J., & Disney, J. The Unmet Need for Legal Services.

Denning-Cotter, G. (2008). Bail support in Australia. Indigenous Justice Clearinghouse.

Hucklesby, A., & Sarre, R. (2009). Bail in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada: Introduction. Current Issues Crim. Just., 21, 1.

Steel, A. (2009). Bail in Australia: legislative introduction and amendment since 1970.

Richards, K., & Renshaw, L. (2013). Bail and remand for young people in Australia: a national research project.

Steel, A. (2009). Bail in Australia: legislative introduction and amendment since

Lever, S. (2008). Criticism and fiction in Australia [The debate between Peter Craven and Ken Gelder.]. Overland, (193), 64.

Stubbs, J. (2010). Re-examining bail and remand for young people in NSW. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 43(3), 485-505.

http://www.abc.au/news/2017-02-01/pimpama-deaths-qld-government-may-tighten-bail-laws-in-dv-cases/8229182