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Criminal Behaviour > Lecture 6A: Parole > Flashcards

Lecture 6A: Parole Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 4 types of parole?

A
  • Temporary absences (approved for community service, personal development or family contact and can be escorted or unescorted)
  • Day parole (allows offenders to participate in community based activities, gain employment, or participate in programs to prepare for full parole/stat release. Must report to CSC parole officer and must abide in a halfway house. )
  • Full parole (under supervision, gradual reintegration of offenders. Report to a CSC parole officer but live in a private residence. Eligible to be considered at 1/3 of sentence. Must follow standard conditions as well as special conditions determined by PBC officer)
  • Statutory release (Not parole bc not a PBC decision. It is mandatory release by law after offender has served 2/3 of sentence. PBC can order an offender be detained past statutory release date in specific cases on CSC recommendation.)
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2
Q

What factors are considered in parole decision making?

A 
Criminal history*
Sentence length*
Mental status*
Performance on earlier releases
Information from victims*
Institutional behaviour*
Program performance
Feasibility of release plans
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3
Q

What is the legal background of the parole board of Canada?

A
  • The Parole Act was repealed and replaced November 1, 1992 by the Corrections and Conditional Release Act but remains for reference purposes.
  • PBC is an independent release decision body (not under the umbrella of Corrections). The offender will not, by re-offending, present an undue risk to society AND the release of the offender will contribute to the protection of society by facilitating their reintegration into society.
  • Decisions on all federal offenders (≥ 2 year sentences) and 8 provinces.
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4
Q

How are board members selected and appointed?

A
  • Applicants are pre-screened by Regional Vice Chair; candidates successful at written exam go to interview; successful candidates go on list.
  • Appointed by the Minister (Privy Council Office - non-partisan, public service support to the Prime Minister and Cabinet).
  • Since 1994 no appointments have been made to individuals NOT on the list.
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5
Q

What are the different backgrounds of board members?

A
  • Criminal justice (Retired police chiefs, Corrections staff, Lawyers )
  • NGO (Volunteers)
  • Private/Other (Industry leaders, Educators)
  • Victim rights advocates
  • There is not currently, but there has been previously an ex offender as a parole board member
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6
Q

What is the current number of PBC members and how long can you be one?

A
  • 40 full-time, 34 part-time members
  • Part-time appointments (3 years + 3 year renewable term)
  • Full-time appointments - maximum of 10 years (3 + 5 + 2)
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7
Q

What is the training for a PBC member?

A
  • New Board Members - 2 week in-class training (twice annually)
    • EBP, decision making, decision writing, interviewing, policy and legal issues, code of professional conduct.
  • Shadowing & mentoring (for 3 or 4 weeks)
  • Annual training meeting (3 days)
  • this is extensive relative to other jurisdictions
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8
Q

What is eligibility for parole?

A

Determinate sentences:
- UTA/Day Parole – 6 months prior to FP eligibility
- Full Parole – 1/3 of sentence or 7 years
- Statutory Release – 2/3 of sentence
Indeterminate sentences:
- Determined by courts at sentencing (10-25 years)
- First degree murder – 25 years

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9
Q

What are the types of decisions made?

A
  • ETAs (PBC makes decisions about Lifers, indefinite sentences)
  • UTAs (serious harm or child victim cases)
  • Conditional release
    Conditions upon release (SR with residency)
    Detention to WED
  • Record Suspensions & Clemency
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10
Q

What decisions require 1 vote from PBC members?

A
  • Post suspensions decisions.
  • Imposing special conditions on SR.
  • Imposing special conditions for LTSO cases.
  • Modifying or removing special conditions.
  • Accepting postponement requests.
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11
Q

What decisions require 2 votes from PBC members?

A

All other decisions 2 votes.

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12
Q

What community assessments must PBC members make?

A
  • Assess degree of support (family, residence, employment)
  • Investigate victim concerns
  • Contact police
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13
Q

Are grant rates increasing or decreasing?

A

ETA (76% and increasing)
UTA (69% grant rate and decreasing)
Day Parole (68% grant rate and increasing)
Full parole (29% grant rate and increasing)
Detention (92% agreement rate between CSC referral for Detention and PBC’s decision to detain them)

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14
Q

What have policy changes from research on risk assessment framework led to?

A

a structured decision making approach for parole

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15
Q

What are the highlights of research findings about the effectiveness of the framework?

A

Highlights of research findings:

  • Good inter-rater agreement
  • Framework matches Board members’ reasons for granting and denying parole
  • Reduces decision errors (FP & FN)
  • When comparing to actual decisions on BOI cases, framework markedly increased accuracy of decision-making, especially for higher risk offenders
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16
Q

How does the scoring of the framework work?

A
  • Structured – training, implemented in 2011
  • Not restricted to a risk assessment (two offenders with similar crimes and risk estimates may receive different decisions)
  • No prescribed decision (i.e., no numbers)
  • Structured - so less opportunity for bias
  • Transparent
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17
Q

How do you rate each domain on the framework?

A

Aggravating: The domain is a major concern for this individual and will negatively influence their behaviour
No Impact: Relative to other inmates, the individual is no worse or better on this domain
Mitigating: This is clearly a positive (protective) aspect of this individual, relative to other inmates

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18
Q

What did Bill C293 and Bill C-32 do?

A
  • Bill C293 – increased victim rights

- Bill C-32 – increased restitution payments by those convicted

19
Q

What is the Canadian Victims bill of rights?

A
  • Right to information, protection, participation, and the right to seek restitution.
    Registered victims can obtain:
    – the offender’s name;
    – the offence and the court of conviction;
    – The sentence start date and length;
    – the offender’s eligibility and review dates for unescorted temporary absences, parole, or statutory release.
20
Q

What are the most common type of offence that harmed victims registered with the federal correctional system?

A

Offences causing death are the most common type of offence to harm the victim (second is sexual offences)

21
Q

What is the most common type of information provided during a notification for registered victims?

A

Temporary Absences

22
Q

What is relationship between victims and parole hearings?

A
  • Victim Impact: At any time related to safety concerns, the offender’s risk to re-offend and/or the effect the crime has had on them
    Presentation at hearing (or written or video):
  • The continuing impact the offence has had on them, as well as any risk or safety concerns the offender may pose.
  • A victim can also request that special conditions be imposed on the offender’s release for the Parole Board to consider.
23
Q

Who was the sample in the Connecticut study?

A 
N = 4,966
94% Male
Race: Black, White, Hispanic and other
-Average age of offenders=36
- Most were high and moderate TPAI static risk
24
Q

Did the parole grant rate change after the Framework was implemented (Connecticut) ?

A
  • before the framework it was 81.5% and after the framework it was 71.9%
  • The deny rate increase from 18.5 to 28.1%
25
Q

Did the recidivism rates change after the Framework was implemented (Connecticut) ?

A
  • Before the framework ‘any new offence’ was 22.6% and after it was 6.6%
  • Technical violations and escapes also decreased after the framework
26
Q

Do Board Members use the Framework?

A
  • The odds of being denied parole for each domain were all higher than 1 (i.e., statistically significant).
  • Which means that they used the framework and there were increased odds of being denied after using it.
27
Q

Are Framework ratings related to community outcomes?

A
  • only offender change, responsivity and release plan were predictive of revocations
28
Q

Do offenders granted parole using the Framework have better success in the community compared to offender denied but later released?

A
  • Parole cases had better outcomes than other community supervision
29
Q

What are the cost savings of keeping these 639 offenders in the community?

A

Around 9 million dollars (cost of incarceration + cost of trial - Cost of supervising offenders in the community)

30
Q

What are the conditions of parole?

A

Various conditions of parole must be met or the offender may go back to prison.
Examples:
- Complete urinalysis testing, complete programming in the community, see a psychologist.
- Report to residence immediately upon release.
- Must remain in Canada.
- Meet with PO.
- Obey the law and keep the peace.
Correctional Service Canada supervises offenders on parole (only Ontario and Quebec have parole boards).
- Period of first release is the time of greatest (more front loading services)

31
Q

What is the typical reporting of success?

A
  • 90% of releases do not commit a new offence
  • 99% of releases do not commit a new violent offence
  • Over the past 10 years, violent offences by parolees have declined by 65%
  • BUT, these comparisons do not control for risk and other relevant factors
32
Q

What was the New Zealand Parole study?

A
  • All offenders released from custody in New Zealand in fiscal years 2007-08 and 2008-09 were included (N = 12,584).
  • Paroled offenders were about 10% less likely to be reincarcerated in the 2 years following release than non-paroled offenders, even when explicitly accounting for risk.
  • This yielded savings of $148,640,605 NZ over two years.
33
Q

Has the percentage of federal offenders released from penitentiaries on stat release increased or decreased in the past 5 years?

A

Decreased

34
Q

Has the percentage of federal offenders released from penitentiaries on day parole in the past 6 years?

A

Increased

35
Q

Did federal, day and full parole grant rates increase or decrease?

A

Increased (day still higher than full)

increased for indigenous offenders too

36
Q

Did the succesful completion of DP, FP and stat release increase or decrease

A
  • they all increased
  • Success rates are high but they vary between different types of release 1) full parole 2) day parole 3) stat release (3rd best or worst outcome)
37
Q

Has the rate of violent convictions for offenders while under supervision declined or increased?

A

Declined

38
Q

What are the “conditions” in conditional release?

A

Standard conditions:

  • Apply to all offenders on conditional release
  • Examples: remain in defined geographic area, keep the peace, not to have a weapon, obey the law, report to their parole officer

Special conditions:

  • On a case-by case basis (median: 4)
  • Examples: Abstain from alcohol, abstain from drugs, reside at a specific place, avoid persons involved with criminal activity, avoid sex workers, avoid victims, report relationships, avoid places where children are places
39
Q

What was R. v. Gladue, 1999?

A
  • Landmark legal precedent requiring that Aboriginal social history factors be considered in sentencing decisions
    • Effects of the residential school system
    • Effects of the dislocation and dispossession of Inuit peoples
    • Family or community history of suicide, substance abuse, victimization, fragmentation
    • Cultural / spiritual identity
    • Experience with the child welfare system
    • Poverty
40
Q

Assistance & Observers at hearings?

A
  • Offenders are permitted assistants at panel hearings.
  • Assistants can be lawyers (paid by Legal Aid) but they cannot function as legal counsel (cross-exam witnesses).
  • In 2012/13, the number of hearings with observers increased, as did the number of observers at the Board’s hearings compared to 2011/12.
41
Q

Can offenders appeal the process/decision?

A
  • There is a separate Appeals Division to whom offenders can appeal the process and/or the decision.
  • For paper decisions, all documents are reviewed but for panel decisions, audiotapes are also reviewed.
  • In 2012-13, 613 applications of which 78% were accepted for review. Of those reviewed, 63 modified decisions were made.
42
Q

What are the challenges in parole decision making?

A

Time pressure:
- 70-80 members, at least a third part-time, who make -20,000+ decisions a year (about 17,500 parole decisions)
- People making time-pressured decisions tend to focus on the negative and be risk averse
Members receive very little feedback on decisions:
- Leads to decision-making shortcuts, which can contribute to patterned rather than case-by-case decision-making
Responses to failure:
- Public and media response in the event of failures is strong
-The only “safe” option to avoid re-offence is not to release

43
Q

What are some new initiatives?

A
  • Electronic files (cloud environment)

- Video-conferencing

Criminal Behaviour (13 decks)

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