4 May, 2004

Alexander: No job, no parole

In calling for increased Parole Board accountability for its decisions, United Future MP Marc Alexander also says it should be "no job, no parole" in his book, Justice with Both Eyes Open, which was launched at Parliament this evening.

"We need to make employment and accommodation integral components of any parole, with non-compliance resulting in the offender returning to prison to complete their sentence," Mr Alexander said.

"It's all part of getting it right for society, but also for the offender," he said.

"We have seen the disasters that have come from releasing prisoners back into society with no job, no secure base - the result is all too often reoffending - and often violent reoffending at that."

Mr Alexander, United Future's law and order spokesman, also calls in the book for the Parole Board to be more accountable for its decisions.

"Too often we've had the 'oops, we got it wrong' line, or even worse no line at all, and yet these flawed, overly-liberal decisions to let all manner of unreformed criminals loose continue," he said.

The reasoning behind parole decisions should be made public, he said.

"After all, these people are being let loose on society, so society has a right to know why they are deemed to safe to walk among us once again."

Justice With Both Eyes Open was launched at a parliamentary function this evening.

Ends.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>