One reason the parole system does not work
Several people have posted comments on this blog about assaults involving Graeme Burton while in prison. As I suspected the allegations were correct, with the SST reporting Burton has:
* attacked a fellow inmate, putting the man in hospital, just months before he was released
* broken a Rimutaka inmate’s arms in 2002
* pressured another inmate to stab a named guard
One of the great myths of parole, is that it provides an incentive to behave while in prison. I even used to believe this. The trouble is, it doesn’t. Over the last few weeks I have learnt that the Parole Board does not get the full record of what a prisoner does while in prison. They mainly just get a list of courses they have completed. Little or none of the above info went to the Parole Board.
Why? Because parole is treated as a right not a privilege and they only get told information which has basically been prosecuted in court. And 95% of violence in prison is never prosecuted so the parole board doesn’t get the information it needs to judge if someone is a risk.
Every prison officer in NZ knew Burton was a violent thug who would offend again. But the system stopped their knowledge from being considered. It’s madness where the rights of the prisoners are given a higher priority than the rights of the community to be safe.
It also totally undermines one of the key rationale’s behind parole – to give an incentive to behave in prison.
So here is the first change that should be made to parole. The parole board *must* be given a prisoner’s full prison record including suspicions over involvement in crimes. Of course the board should not treat a suspicion as strongly as something which has been proven in court, but 95% of prison violence never goes to court.
Now some may argue this goes against human rights to take into account crimes not proven. But parole is not a right but a privilege. The criminal has already been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crimes they are in prison for. This is about whether they get the privilege of parole. And to earn that privilege they need to have outstanding behaviour while in prison.
Unless the parole board is given full information on a prisoner’s behaviour while in prison, parole will continue to fail.