Deanna “Violet” Coco has been sentenced to 15 months in prison with a non-parole period of eight months for blocking a lane of traffic on Sydney Harbour Bridge during a climate change protest.
Her sentence handed down last week troubled human rights advocates, who called it “incredibly alarming”, and appears harsh when compared to recent sentences for serious offences issued by courts in New South Wales and Victoria.
There are few examples of offenders being jailed in New South Wales for even the most serious breaches of laws designed to protect the environment, either because the laws do not provide for custodial sentences for offenders or because they have not been applied.
There are a number of considerations made when imposing a sentence, including deterrence and the gravity of the offence – and many of these factors are set out in sentencing guidelines for magistrates and judges.
In Coco’s case, she was convicted of multiple charges related to the protest, including explosive offences linked to her use of a flare, and resisting arrest.
Her sentence was not just based on a breach of the anti-protest laws.
She had also previously been charged with similar offences, another factor considered in sentencing.
But we can compare her sentence to averages for other types of crimes committed in NSW.
The NSW bureau of crime statistics and research collects data on sentences handed down to adult offenders.
Of offences similar to that which Coco was charged for, the data shows that only 5.3% of offenders charged with hinder arrest in the years from 2017 to 2021 were sentenced to prison.
Some 91% of those who received prison sentences received less than six months, while Coco was sentenced to nine months (she was also sentenced to 12 months each for two other offences, with the sentence for the three charges aggregated but then discounted to 15 months to account for her guilty plea).
Of those charged with prohibited weapon and explosive offences similar to that which Coco was charged, about one in six (16.8%) are sentenced to prison, with 85% of those facing terms of less than a year.
Of the two explosive-related offences Coco faced, she received a 12-month prison term for one (which, as mentioned above, was part of an aggregate sentence that was then reduced) and a $2,500 fine for another.
There have been very few convictions under protest laws, and they were only enacted this year, making any analysis of sentences for those offences impossible.
But an analysis of the data shows that in most offence categories, with the exception of homicide and sexual assault (and related offences), the majority of offenders are not sentenced to prison.
The data, however, relates to individual offences. Many offenders – such as Coco – are sentenced for several charges at once.
In the five years to 2021, only 7.1% of those sentenced for a drug offence in NSW were sent to prison. Of those who received a prison sentence, 48% of them were sentenced to less than a year.
Those sentenced for acts intended to cause injury (15.4% of all offenders) and fraud, deception and related offences (14.7%) were also unlikely to be sent to prison.
Less than two in 10 of those people sentenced for each offence were sentenced to more than a year in prison.
For environmental pollution and property damage offences, less than six in every 100 people charged are sent to prison, and of those that are, almost 90% receive a sentence of 12 months or less.
Sexual assault and related offences is one of the few categories where more than half those charged (56%) receive a prison term. But of those who do, almost 40% are sentenced to terms of a year of less.
