Parole Refusal

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 7

Parole Refusal

More than 900 prisoners in Britain, out of a total of 10,695 eligible for parole, had refused to be considered for parole, the report of the Parole Board for 1968 states. Reasons given for refusals inelude: Suspicion by prisoners that parole is meant to give the authorities some hold over them after release. Prisoners’ awareness of their own likelihood to return to crime, and their belief it was against their own interests to risk getting caught while on parole. One prisoner said he did not want to fail parole on a short sentence and spoil his chance of being given parole on a long sentence. A few prisoners felt that if they offended after

release on parole they were likely to receive a longer sentence. The report adds: “There are always some prisoners who are so institutionalised that they feel secure only within the confines of the prison and have no real wish to leave before they have to.” Questioned by telephone in Wellington, the Secretary of Justice (Dr J. L. Robson) said only “in one or two cases over the years” had a prisoner refused a recommendation for parole. The Superintendent of the Christchurch Prison (Mr M. C. Carew) said he had not known personally of any prisoner actually refusing the chance of parole.