Parole system must be fixed

If the Parole Board is being described as broken for victims’ families it is even more broken for prisoners who have done all required rehabilitation programs but who languish in jail often for many months after their parole eligibility dates because of prisoners being unable to obtain parole accommodation.

Queensland Council for Civil Liberties Vice‑President Terry O’Gorman today said that the Queensland parole system which is designed to help prisoners transition from life behind bars to safely integrate back into the community and become useful members of society is contributing to Queensland record prison numbers and resultant significant overcrowding because a large number of parole eligible prisoners cannot find accommodation to enable them to be released from prison.

“This is a problem that has been known to the Parole Board for a long time and it remains unresolved causing rehabilitated prisoners to become embittered and thereby increasing their chances of breaching parole when they are eventually released sometimes months and months after the Court ordered date for parole eligibility”, Mr O’Gorman said.

“This is a particularly serious problem with Indigenous prisoners and it is well beyond time for the Aboriginal Legal Service to bring a class action in the Supreme Court to have the problem fixed”, Mr O’Gorman said.

“I have today written to the new Queensland Corrective Services Minister, Nikki Boyd, asking her to urgently address the problem”, Mr O’Gorman said.

“I have also told the new Minister that serious ongoing and deeply embedded Parole Board problems in this area is wasting millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money as it costs over $100,000.00 per year to house one prisoner and there are a significant number of prisoners who should be on parole but are being unnecessarily kept in jail thereby adding to the already seriously skyrocketing Queensland Corrective Services budget drain on the Queensland economy”, Mr O’Gorman said.