Lecture 6A: Parole Flashcards
What are the 4 types of parole?
- 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.)
What factors are considered in parole decision making?
Criminal history* Sentence length* Mental status* Performance on earlier releases Information from victims* Institutional behaviour* Program performance Feasibility of release plans
What is the legal background of the parole board of Canada?
- The Parole Act was repealed and replaced November 1, 1992 by the Corrections and Conditional Release Act but remains for reference purposes.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.
How are board members selected and appointed?
- 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.
What are the different backgrounds of board members?
- 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
What is the current number of PBC members and how long can you be one?
- 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)
What is the training for a PBC member?
- 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
What is eligibility for parole?
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
What are the types of decisions made?
- 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
What decisions require 1 vote from PBC members?
- Post suspensions decisions.
- Imposing special conditions on SR.
- Imposing special conditions for LTSO cases.
- Modifying or removing special conditions.
- Accepting postponement requests.
What decisions require 2 votes from PBC members?
All other decisions 2 votes.
What community assessments must PBC members make?
- Assess degree of support (family, residence, employment)
- Investigate victim concerns
- Contact police
Are grant rates increasing or decreasing?
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)
What have policy changes from research on risk assessment framework led to?
a structured decision making approach for parole
What are the highlights of research findings about the effectiveness of the framework?
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
How does the scoring of the framework work?
- 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
How do you rate each domain on the framework?
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
What did Bill C293 and Bill C-32 do?
- Bill C293 – increased victim rights
- Bill C-32 – increased restitution payments by those convicted
What is the Canadian Victims bill of rights?
- 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.
What are the most common type of offence that harmed victims registered with the federal correctional system?
Offences causing death are the most common type of offence to harm the victim (second is sexual offences)
What is the most common type of information provided during a notification for registered victims?
Temporary Absences
What is relationship between victims and parole hearings?
- 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.
Who was the sample in the Connecticut study?
N = 4,966 94% Male Race: Black, White, Hispanic and other -Average age of offenders=36 - Most were high and moderate TPAI static risk
Did the parole grant rate change after the Framework was implemented (Connecticut) ?
- 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%
Did the recidivism rates change after the Framework was implemented (Connecticut) ?
- Before the framework ‘any new offence’ was 22.6% and after it was 6.6%
- Technical violations and escapes also decreased after the framework
Do Board Members use the Framework?
- 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.
Are Framework ratings related to community outcomes?
- only offender change, responsivity and release plan were predictive of revocations
Do offenders granted parole using the Framework have better success in the community compared to offender denied but later released?
- Parole cases had better outcomes than other community supervision
What are the cost savings of keeping these 639 offenders in the community?
Around 9 million dollars (cost of incarceration + cost of trial - Cost of supervising offenders in the community)
What are the conditions of parole?
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)
What is the typical reporting of success?
- 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
What was the New Zealand Parole study?
- 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.
Has the percentage of federal offenders released from penitentiaries on stat release increased or decreased in the past 5 years?
Decreased
Has the percentage of federal offenders released from penitentiaries on day parole in the past 6 years?
Increased
Did federal, day and full parole grant rates increase or decrease?
Increased (day still higher than full)
increased for indigenous offenders too
Did the succesful completion of DP, FP and stat release increase or decrease
- 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)
Has the rate of violent convictions for offenders while under supervision declined or increased?
Declined
What are the “conditions” in conditional release?
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
What was R. v. Gladue, 1999?
- 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
Assistance & Observers at hearings?
- 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.
Can offenders appeal the process/decision?
- 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.
What are the challenges in parole decision making?
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
What are some new initiatives?
- Electronic files (cloud environment)
- Video-conferencing
