NEIGHBOURS IN FEAR SPEAK OUT AS PAROLEES MOVE INTO SUBURB

Residents complain about halfway house in their street

BUNGALOW residents say they feel like prisoners in their own homes after a halfway house for parolees opened on their street.

Police have received numerous reports of people with GPS-tracking ankle bracelets prowling through private property in the weeks since the Bunting St facility opened.

Jason Clarke has called police multiple times after finding youths and adults trespassing on his and his neighbours’ land.

“Everyone in the neigh- bourhood is scared, pretty much,” he said. “I’ve put new security doors on the house.”

Mr Clarke also said all of his switches had been turned off and on, and his water pipes were broken.

“They’re confronting people in the daylight, just walking through their property.

“But they’ve got ankle bracelets on so shouldn’t they be tracked?”

Mr Clarke recently installed new security alarms on an elderly neighbour’s home and shed to deter potential intruders.

“It just goes off constantly now,” he said.

Neighbours have been kept in the dark about the nature of the boarding house and wrongly assumed it was a youth bail house, a presumption rejected by police and the Department of Child Safety.

A Queensland Corrective Services spokesman told the Cairns Post the Bunting St lodgings provide accommodation for prisoners released into the community on good behaviour.

“QCS advises that the premises is run by a non-government organisation,” he said.

“QCS officers supervise people on community-based orders throughout the state, including community service, probation and parole.

“Unless they are excluded from certain areas by the conditions of their order (going near victims, entertainment precincts or similar) due to the nature of their offending, parolees are free to live and move around in the community, just like anyone else.”

They are also subject to the same laws as anyone else.

“Anyone trespassing on private property should be reported to police,” the spokesman said.

The explanation is little comfort to Mr Clarke.

“I think everyone’s a bit scared,” he said.

“I don’t know who is responsible for this but if no one can stop it, we’re sitting ducks.”

Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch said his phone had been ringing hot with residents wanting answers.

“This should have been discussed with neighbours,” Mr Entsch said. “I don’t have a problem with people coming out of jail and needing a bit of support, however, it has to be properly managed.

“Don’t just dump them there, walk away and expect everything to be hunky dory.”

Mr Entsch said his efforts to get to the bottom of the issue repeatedly met roadblocks.

“My office has had no end of trouble trying to find out facts, and at this point we still don’t know who is actually running it,” he said.