With a series of high-profile cases in the news, parole is back in the spotlight. Let’s unpack some of the most common misconceptions about what parole really means.
Understaffing and budget cuts mean prisoners often struggle to complete rehab programmes, even when they want to. ACT’s Parole Amendment Bill risks having the opposite of its intended effect.
Research on developing brains has helped bring about a sea change in attitudes toward juvenile life without parole. But many people who committed crimes as minors are still serving such sentences.
Protests outside the constitutional court at its decision to grant parole to Chris Hani’s killer, Janusz Walus.
Fani Mahuntsi/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The court should have given the public a much clearer understanding of how it came to its decision, and what consideration it had given to public opinion.
Protesters demonstrate outside the high court in Cape Town against parole for Janusz Walus.
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‘No body, no parole’ laws may at first appear to be in the public interest. But there’s a lack of evidence they work and a risk they may disproportionately penalise the wrongfully convicted.
Family of the victims of a series of stabbings on the James Smith Cree Nation reserve in Saskatchewan hug following a news conference in Saskatoon on Sept. 7.
(AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)
Myles Sanderson was given statutory release from prison prior to a stabbing rampage that left 10 people dead. But a legal expert says his case is unrepresentative of how people behave on this form of release.
Facial recognition technology struggles to recognise darker skin tones.
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Some prisoners love and care for each other, but others physically, verbally and emotionally abuse each other. These offences can threaten safety and the good order of the prison.
New legislation in WA might provide reassurance to victims of crime, but risks political interference when it comes to deciding who gets parole.
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Under new WA legislation, the state’s attorney-general has the power to order serial killers and mass murders remain in jail, sometimes without judicial review.
Programs that allow individuals to be supervised in the community instead of in prison are growing in a way that is not sustainable and is contributing to mass incarceration rather than relieving it.
Australian governments have too often succumbed to perceived community pressure to limit parole authorities’ independence and powers.
AAP/Samantha Manchee
Upholding victims’ rights on parole decisions means respectfully enabling their active participation in decisions that affect their personal interests.
Prison inmates in Santa Rosa, California.
REUTERS/Heather Somerville
Proposed new laws will restrict parole and bail to those merely associated in some way with terrorism, even when they have not be arrested for – or convicted of – a specific terrorism offence.
Federal and state leaders will convene as soon as practicable for a special COAG meeting on counter-terrorism.
AAP/Rob Blakers
States and territories have agreed to strengthen their laws to ensure a presumption against granting bail or parole when people had ‘demonstrated support for, or have links to, terrorist activity’.
Professor in Law and Co-Convener National Security Hub (University of Canberra) and Research Fellow (adjunct) - The Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa, Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University- NATO Fellow Asia-Pacific, University of Canberra