Data were obtained from the Western Australian Department of Justice regarding the decision type for adjudicated cases from the Children’s Courts and Courts of Petty Sessions in Kalumburu, Oombulgurri, Wyndham, Kununurra, Warmun, and Halls Creek in 2001–2002. These data were classified according to Aboriginal identification and gender. However, a major drawback for the analysis of these data is the lack of a process of ethnic self-identification with the result that out of a total of 1,584 adjudicated cases, only 22% were recorded as Aboriginal, with the ethnic identity in the vast majority of the remaining cases (77%) recorded as unknown. However, given the arrest rates described above, it can be reasonably assumed that the majority of sentences reported in these data relate to Aboriginal persons.

The distribution of adjudicated court cases by Aboriginality of offender (Petty Sessions plus Children’s Courts) in the Northern East Kimberley is shown in Table 8.9. More than half of all court hearings are in Kununurra, followed by Halls Creek with almost one-third. Clearly the community-based courts in Warmun, Oombulgurri and Kalumburu play a lesser role. But this cannot be taken to indicate that residents of these places have less interaction with the court system; it is simply that their cases are more likely heard elsewhere.

The findings of court proceedings in the form of penalties (sentences) can be grouped into four broad categories: custodial, non-custodial, fines and dismissals. According to the ABS sentence type classification (ABS 2003: 71), custodial orders involve custody in a correctional institution either as life imprisonment, imprisonment with a determined term, or periodic detention. They also include custody in the community under an Intensive Corrections Order or home detention. Suspended sentences also fall under custodial orders. Non-custodial orders include a variety of community supervision or work orders and community service orders, as well as probation and treatment orders. Other non-custodial orders include good behaviour bonds and recognizance orders, while monetary orders basically refer to fines or recompense to victims as well as licence disqualification/suspension/amendment and forfeiture of property.

As non-custodial sentences are the most common it is worth defining some further aspects of these. For example, Community Based Orders allow the court to order an offender to be managed by a Community Corrections Officer for the purposes of any one or more requirements of supervision, community service of between 40 to 120 hours, and/or programs aimed at the offender’s behaviour. Intensive Supervision Orders are similar but provide for longer and more stringent supervision including curfews. For people who are in default of a fine, Work and Development Orders are the last option prior to imprisonment. The order requires that the offender perform a specified number of hours of community work and personal development.

In the East Kimberley, as in all remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia, these non-custodial orders are carried out under the Aboriginal Community Supervision Agreement which offers communities a key role in the decision making about offender management. As Parriman and Daley (1999) point out, communities decide themselves whether to accept an offender under supervision, they determine who is the most appropriate person to administer the supervision order, and they are largely responsible for determining the supervision regime. One consequence has been a greater tendency on the part of the courts to make greater use of community based sentencing (Parriman and Daley 1999: 3), and this is reflected in the sentencing data for the East Kimberley.

Table 8.10 shows the distribution of penalties awarded to convicted charges in 2001–02 by the various Courts of Petty Sessions within the study region according to the type of sentence. By far the largest number of convictions (58%) attracted a monetary penalty in the form of a fine. This is followed by non-custodial sentences awarded in 32% of cases. In all, 93 cases attracted a custodial sentence, representing just 7% of all cases. However, in 2000–01, a total of 137 individuals whose last known address was in the East Kimberley were in prison, mostly in the Broome regional prison.

Not surprisingly, most cases were tried at the Kununurra court, and this is reflected in the percentage distribution of sentences handed out, although Halls Creek appears to have recorded a disproportionate share of custodial sentences based on the overall number of cases heard. A similar picture emerges from sentencing patterns in the Children’s Courts (Table 8.11),with non-custodial sentences, including referrals to juvenile justice teams, accounting for 68% of all sentences. However, juvenile custodial sentences represent a higher proportion of all sentences (12%) compared to the adult courts.