Doubts over police role on paroles

THE State Government will push ahead with plans to give someone with policing experience a position on the Tasmanian Parole Board, but lawyers have questioned why it is necessary.

The position was a Liberal election promise to “address concerns around offenders being granted parole”.

Attorney-General Elise Archer said this week the Government was working on legislation to enable it.

Ms Archer also said the Government had always prioritised community safety and protecting victims’ rights.

Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman Fabiano Cangelosi said the Parole Board was made up of people who had experience generally with the legal system and were able to assess parole applications.

Prisoners Legal Service chairman Greg Barns said police had a “conflict of interest” when it came to making parole decisions.

“They investigate people, they prosecute people,” Mr LORETTA LO LOHBERGER LO Barns said.

“They have no skills when it comes to assuring rehabilitation.”

The state’s Parole Board has been in the spotlight recently after it granted parole to Gary John Devine, 59, who was convicted in 2010 of prostituting a 12-year-old girl, and Jamie John Curtis, 62.

Curtis served 32 years in jail for murder, abduction, six counts of rape, aggravated burglary, four counts of causing grievous bodily harm, nine counts of assault, three counts of indecent assault, one count of escape and two counts of burglary.

The time at which a prisoner can apply for parole is set by the judge who sentences them.

If parole is applied for and granted, prisoners are released back into the community under supervision, and mally with conditions.

“Parole is designed to help someone be rehabilitated while still having the threat of prison hanging over their head,” Mr Cangelosi said.

“If you don’t have parole you have someone coming out of jail at the end of a very long sentence with basically no support.”

Mr Barns said very few parolees reoffended.

“That’s the test of a parole system — whether people reoffend on parole,” he said.

“We do know of course that we have very high recidivism rates in Tasmania. A lot of those are short-term offenders … When it comes to long-term prisoners, very few reoffend on parole.

“I think the Parole Board’s too cautious.”

Mr Barns said there needed to be some balance in the debates about prisoners being granted parole.

“The justice system is not run at the behest of victims or for every victims’ whim to be satisfied,” he said. nor-