Parole board to get more power

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33693, 16 November 1974, Page 18

Parole board to get more power

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, November 15. The powers of the Prisons Parole Board would be increased, the Minister of Justice (Dr Finlay) said tonight.

Speaking on “Law and Order in New Zealand” at Victoria University, Dr Finlay said he did not think, anyone could determine, at the moment of sentence, the proper period for which a man should be detained. It would be better to review the sentence after it had been partly served to discover how far the sentence was achieving its purpose, and whether it should be modified then, or some time before its formal expiry. This would enable the board to decide whether continued imprisonment was counter-productive, “inducing deterioration in the inmate’s condition and outlook rather than improvement—remembering always that he has to be let loose into society again sooner or later.” In some cases, Dr Finlay said, the board could decide that release should not only be later, but as late as possible—and in life sentences possibly never.

I But, the Minister said, his t chief interest was in keeping - people out of prison in the - first place. e He praised the periodic i detention system and its i originator, the late Mr Ralph Hanan, a former Justice Min- . ister, and said he was intert ested in a British extension > of. the system, the custody > and control order. This, Dr Finlay said, had I been described as allowing an > offender the option of going ' to gaol or spending his spare , time on unpaid community ! work. But he was wary of a Brit- ’ ish proposal which would : allow probation officers ’ “apparently almost arbi- ‘ trarily” to arrest and detain ‘ an offender on probation for ’ breach of his order. i

Insurance election.—Mr R. E. Davis has been elected : chairman of Christchurch dis- ’ trict of the Insurance Insti- ■ tute of New Zealand. Mr T. :O. A. Johnson has been elected vice-chairman.