Criminal penalties for breaching a good behaviour order would be scrapped under an official pitch to reform Victoria's sentencing regime.
The state's Sentencing Advisory Council on Tuesday recommended 26 changes to good behaviour orders, including that breaches be decriminalised.
Good behaviour orders are Victoria's second-most common punishment with about 17,000 imposed in 2019, on almost one in five adult offenders who fronted court. Fines are the most common penalty.
Victorians who do breach the orders are rarely and inconsistently prosecuted, and face a maximum penalty of a fine.
While the orders already work very well they have gone without review since 1985, the council said.
"Adjourned undertakings serve a critical role in our justice system," council chair Marilyn McMahon said.
"They are designed for people who commit less serious offences, which make up most of the crime dealt with by courts.
"Our 26 recommendations are simply designed to make this sentencing order work even better than it already is."
Police, defence lawyers, prosecutors and offender support organisations were among those who backed the council's call to decriminalise breaching good behaviour orders.
People who breach good behaviours can be sentenced for new offences if they commit them.
They can also be re-sentenced for their original crimes.
"In that context, prosecuting someone for the additional and specific offence of breaching a sentencing order will often constitute double, if not triple, punishment," the council said in a report.
The council also recommended the term "good behaviour" be clearly defined to give offenders a better understanding of what they could not do beyond simply committing further offences.
It found that while almost half of good behaviour orders did not have special conditions attached, the majority of those that did require an offender to make a donation to charity.
Victoria Police and other organisations pointed out having to pay a fine or make a donation to charity could leave lower-income offenders worse off.
The council recommended the Sentencing Act be changed to force courts to consider an offender's financial circumstances before they ordered them to make a charitable donation.
It noted the form given to offenders handed a good behaviour order was unnecessarily complex and difficult to understand.
It recommended the Magistrates Court redesign the form so it was easier to understand.
The council also recommended the orders only be officially known by the one name, "good behaviour orders", rather than as adjourned undertakings or bonds.
