Northern Territory Consolidated Acts Northern Territory Consolidated Acts(1) Where a person is found guilty of an offence and the court:
(a) is satisfied by the production of a certificate, in the prescribed form, of the Chief Health Officer or by any other evidence that:
(i) the person appears to be mentally ill or mentally disturbed; and
(ii) the person may benefit from being treated in an approved treatment facility; and
(b) receives written advice from the Chief Health Officer that facilities are available at an approved treatment facility to treat the person and the admission, detention and treatment is appropriate;
it may:
(c) order that the person be admitted to and detained at the discretion of the Chief Health Officer in an approved treatment facility to enable the diagnosis, assessment and treatment of the person under the Mental Health and Related Services Act 1998 ; or
(d) order that the person be admitted to and detained in an approved treatment facility to enable the diagnosis, assessment and treatment of the person under the Mental Health and Related Services Act 1998 for a period, not exceeding 3 months, as specified in the order; or
(e) order that the person be admitted to and detained in an approved treatment facility to enable the treatment of the person under the Mental Health and Related Services Act 1998 for a period specified in the order.
(2) The court may, after consulting with the Chief Health Officer or an approved person, impose conditions on an order under subsection (1) to ensure the security and good order of the person.
(3) Conditions under subsection (2) may include:
(a) whether the person must be detained in a particular part of the approved treatment facility; and
(b) whether the person must be kept under guard at the approved treatment facility; and
(c) whether the person may be granted leave of absence from the approved treatment facility; and
(d) whether the person, if the person is a prisoner, is to be subject to the same restrictions as applying to the person if he or she were in a custodial correctional facility.
(4) An order made under subsection (1) is to be consistent with recommendations made in the report provided to the court under section 79.
(5) Where an order is made under subsection (1), the person is to be treated under the Mental Health and Related Services Act 1998 and is entitled to exercise the rights conferred by that Act.
(6) Unless the court orders otherwise, where:
(a) an order made under subsection (1)(d) or (e) is in force in respect of a person; and
(b) the person is discharged from an approved treatment facility under this Act or the Mental Health and Related Services Act 1998 ;
the person must be:
(c) taken to a custodial correctional facility in accordance with section 84; and
(d) returned to the court on the first available sitting day.
(7) A person returned to the court under subsection (6) may be dealt with by the court as if he or she were before the court on being found guilty of the offence in respect of which the order under subsection (1)(d) or (e) was made.
(8) Where the court makes an order under subsection (1)(c), the person cannot be detained for longer than 3 months but may be discharged by the Chief Health Officer before the 3 months expires.
(9) A court must not make an order under subsection (1)(e) unless, but for the mental illness or mental disturbance of the person, it would have sentenced the person to a term of imprisonment.
(10) Where a court makes an order under subsection (1)(e), it:
(a) must not specify a period of detention in an approved treatment facility that is longer than the period of imprisonment to which the person would have been sentenced had the order not been made; and
(b) must, subject to Part 3, Division 5, Subdivision 3, fix a non-parole period in accordance with that Subdivision as if the order were a term of imprisonment.
(11) At any time before the end of the period specified in an order under subsection (1)(e) an authorised psychiatric practitioner nominated by the Chief Health Officer or the Tribunal may in pursuance of the Mental Health and Related Services Act 1998 order the discharge of the person named in the order from the approved treatment facility and the order has effect as a sentence of imprisonment for the unexpired portion of it and that unexpired portion must be served in a custodial correctional facility unless the person is released on parole.
(12) A non-parole period fixed under subsection (10) is only relevant in the circumstances referred to in subsection (11).