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Criminal Procedure Act 2011

General provisions - Conduct of proceeding - Adjournments and bail

168B: Provisions about compliance with no-contact conditions

You could also call this:

"Rules to follow when a judge says you can't contact certain people while waiting for your trial"

Illustration for Criminal Procedure Act 2011

If you are in prison waiting for your trial, a judge might give a direction that says you cannot contact certain people. This direction is very important and you must follow it. The prison manager and the police will be told about this direction, and it will override some of your normal rights as a prisoner under the Corrections Act 2004, such as being able to have private visitors, send and receive mail, or make phone calls.

The prison manager can use their powers under the Corrections Act 2004, such as reading your mail or listening to your phone calls, to make sure you are not contacting people you are not supposed to. If you break the rules, the prison manager or the police must tell the court right away.

The court will then look at what happened and might change the conditions of your imprisonment. The judge might also decide to write down what you did wrong in your permanent court record. This means that if you ask for bail again in the future, the court can look at what you did and decide if you should be allowed out of prison.

If the judge does write down what you did wrong, you can appeal against this decision under the Bail Act 2000. But if you have a good reason for breaking the rules, or if what you did was very minor, the judge might not write it down.

The court can look at what you did even if it happened a long time ago, and it can affect whether you get bail in the future.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS219223.

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Part 5General provisions
Conduct of proceeding: Adjournments and bail

168BProvisions about compliance with no-contact conditions

  1. A direction given under section 168A must be copied to the defendant and to the manager of the prison in which the defendant is held in custody on remand, and overrides any entitlement of the defendant under enactments in, or made under, the Corrections Act 2004 (for example, under the following sections of that Act:

  2. section 73 (entitlement to private visitors):
    1. section 76 (prisoners may send and receive mail):
      1. section 77 (outgoing telephone calls)).

        1. The manager of the prison in which the defendant is held in custody on remand, or any other person, may use relevant powers of that manager or person under sections 103A to 110C (about opening and reading of mail and withholding of correspondence) of the Corrections Act 2004, or under section 127I or 127J (about monitoring of telephone calls) of that Act, to detect and prevent non-compliance by the defendant with conditions imposed by the direction.

        2. After becoming aware of a breach of those conditions, the manager of the prison in which the defendant is held in custody on remand, or the Police, must take all reasonable steps to notify it promptly to the Registrar.

        3. The Registrar, on being notified, must bring the matter to the attention of a judicial officer, who may reconsider the conditions of remand and any exceptions specified under section 168A(2), and must direct the Registrar that the nature of the condition and the breach be entered in the permanent court record.

        4. Despite subsection (4), the judicial officer may decide not to direct that those matters be entered in the permanent court record if satisfied that—

        5. the defendant had a reasonable excuse for the breach; or
          1. the breach is so minor in nature that it should not be recorded and able to be considered in a later application for bail made by that defendant.

            1. A breach entered under this section in the permanent court record may be considered in a later application for bail made by that defendant over his or her lifetime (whether or not the defendant is charged with a family violence offence).

            2. A direction given under this section by a judicial officer that the breach of the condition be entered in the permanent court record may be appealed against by the defendant under sections 51 and 52 of the Bail Act 2000 (which apply with all necessary modifications).

            Notes
            • Section 168B: inserted, on , by section 44 of the Family Violence (Amendments) Act 2018 (2018 No 47).
            • Section 168B(2): amended, on , by section 52 of the Corrections Amendment Act 2024 (2024 No 41).