Offenders in jail for life mostly behave

New Zealand’s most serious offenders largely do well when released from prison, with only a fraction recalled because of misdemeanours.

The country has two kinds of indefinite jail sentence – life imprisonment and preventive detention.

Life imprisonment is reserved for the most serious crimes, such as murder and treason, while preventive detention is imposed on the most serious violent or sexual offenders.

Both sentences almost always come with minimum terms, meaning offenders can be released, but only if they satisfy the Parole Board they are not an undue risk to the community.

According to figures released under the Official Information Act, 841 people serving life or preventive detention were sentenced at the end of August – 312 of those on parole.

The same figures show an average of six people – 1.9 per cent – are recalled to prison each year.

Department of Corrections deputy chief executive of corporate services Richard Waggott said release conditions for those freed on parole usually lasted for six months from the end of the offender’s full term.

But those conditions, which can include abstinence from alcohol and drugs, or orders to stay away from people, last for life for those on indeterminate sentences.

The conditions aimed to help hardened crims reduce their likelihood of offending in the community, Waggott said.

‘‘Probation officers work with offenders in the community to support them to live crime-free lives and comply with the conditions of their sentences or orders.’’

That work included helping offenders with getting jobs, training and accommodation, he said.

Corrections had a range of options for when things went wrong, including charging people with breaching parole and applying to have them recalled to prison.

Someone may be recalled to prison because they’d committed further offending or were thought at risk of doing so, he said.

Police or Corrections can apply to have someone recalled to prison, but the decision ultimately rests with the Parole Board.

Waggott said the board had to ask itself the same question when deciding to recall someone as it did when deciding to release – was the offender an undue risk to the community?

If previous examples of offenders being recalled are anything to go by, the threshhold for Corrections applying to have someone recalled can vary.

Shane Karepa, also known as Antonio Monini Maciana, was recalled in March 2016 to continue serving life for the 1988 murder of Robert Maurice Shattky.

Karepa, then 18, had just been released from prison when he and three others killed Shattky him in an alley near an Auckland pub.

Karepa was paroled in 2001, but managed to rack up six convictions between 2003 and 2009 without being recalled.

That led to the board members saying they were surprised he was not subject to a recall application sooner.

There is no limit to the number of times someone can be released and recalled.