A news story about parole will certainly have the " Lock 'em up and throw away the key " brigade frothing at the mouth and screaming like Banshees ! It seems that a now twenty-six years old man was released from jail after serving eighteen months of a two and a half year sentence imposed for having sex with a thirteen year old girl.
He made the journey from prison to his home by train and in the carriage he encountered two girls, aged fifteen and sixteen, and struck up a conversation with them. He convinced them to accompany him to a park in the western suburbs and bought a quantity of liquor, later returning to the liquor outlet to top up his supplies - and it is alleged that he raped the sixteen year old. He is now back behind bars and he will face court again next month.
That certainly is a contender for the title of the fastest re-offender. It seems that parole is an automatic sequence in cases where the sentence is three years or less - and the judge stipulates the minimum time to be served. The prison authorities prepare a report on the prisoner and one of the terms of the release requires the offender to report to a nominated parole officer for further supervision.
This mans pre-release report noted that he had a history of ignoring supervisory orders and had a moderate to high risk of re-offending. It recommended inclusion in a sex offenders re-training programme but noted that this take two years to complete.
Pressure is building to make parole much harder to earn and for a far tougher regimen to apply to those who are released, but this totally ignores the explosive overcrowding that currently exists in our prisons. We are presently putting three people into jail cells designed for a single inmate and often the early release of minor offenders is conditional on the prisons being able to accept those convicted of more serious crimes.
Imposing further restrictions on parole release risks coagulation with minor prisoners clogging prison arteries and bringing the system to a stand still. Every day a vast number of prisoners complete their initial term of imprisonment and are given early release on parole, and the vast majority return home without incident. It is the exceptional offender who flouts the rules and attracts media attention which brings the whole system into disrepute.
Supervision while on parole is a thankless task imposed on an under strength army of parole officers. The only real weapon in their armoury is the revocation of parole and the return of the parolee to prison, but given the overcrowding that is reserved for the most serious violations. There is the expectation that a high proportion of offenders will return to some sort of crime and in many cases that will involve drugs. Fortunately, re-offending within hours of release is rare !
If we seriously expect to toughen up the parole system and impose a draconian regimen of release supervision the taxpayers will have to put his or her hand in their pocket and shell out for many new prisons and an expanded number of parole officers. That can not be achieved within the scope of what serves our state at this moment.
It is the usual contrast between what is ideal - and what is practical. Our prison system is what the taxpayer is prepared to pay for, and the results are delivered accordingly !
No comments:
Post a Comment