Call for flexibility in state parole system

TASMANIA’S parole system is broken and too strict to help prisoners land back on their feet after release, says barrister and prisoner advocate Greg Barns.

During a panel discussion at the Reintegration Puzzle conference in Hobart yesterday Mr Barns, who chairs the Prisoners Legal Service, labelled the state’s parole board “cautious and conservative”.

“There’s got to be a much more liberal approach, they need to stop penalising people for petty offences and breaching their parole,” he said.

“We would like to see a onestop shop established, where you have mental health, physical health, employment and housing all working together with people who are returning to the community.”

Panellist and former prisoner Tony Bull said it took him 10 years to finish a three-year sentence because of minor parole breaches.

“You’re always asked what you’re going to do and every prisoner has an answer, but they never ask or teach you about how you’re going to do it,” Mr Bull said.

“When freedom smashes you in the face, every good intention and plan you had is the last thing you think about. I was released on parole seven or eight times and I never made it through any of them.

“There’s no compromise, they don’t understand my definition of normal.”

National Health and Medi- cal Research Council senior research fellow and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Professor Stuart Kinner, who also sat on the panel, said parolees often face severe health problems.

“In Australia, the estimated costs of acute health care for released prisoners is $56 million a year,” Prof Kinner said.

“We need to rethink about parole as part of the solution to improving those health outcomes. Health issues are relevant to parole and we need to think about how we can reconstruct parole so it’s a little less punitive on things like substance dependence, which we know is a relapsing condition.”

Mr Kinner said further research was needed to help build a parole system that focuses not only on crime prevention but improving health outcomes.

The theme for the conference, which is in its 14th year, was “Smarter Justice, Safer Communities”.