Government to change bail laws before next election

The Government will reform bail laws before the next election.

Speaking on TV3’s ‘The Nation’ today Justice Minister Simon Power said the Government was undergoing a rolling review of parole, home detention and bail.

Mr Power says he is considering screening hearings to weed out offenders who are unlikely to be granted parole.

“I'm very attracted to the notion of triaging parole hearings so that victims and witnesses, or victims particularly and victims’ families, are not rebrutalised by that process.

“It's a theme that we're running through the Justice reform process, so I think that you could expect some pretty speedy reaction… in that area.”

Currently prisoners eligible for Parole have annual hearings until they are released.

Concerns over re-victimisation have been highlighted by the Michael Choi case. Mr Choi’s mother Rita Croskery has attended 28 parole hearings since the conviction of her son’s killer.

Mr Power said the Parole Board needed to focus their attention on more plausible cases.

“I would rather see the Parole Board concentrating on difficult cases that require a lot of consideration, rather than wasting resource on time, on areas where parole is clearly not going to be granted.”

At the Sensible Sentencing Trust conference in Parliament earlier this week he mentioned other proposals including raising the jury threshold, requiring counsel to resolve cases before going to a hearing and requiring the defence to identify issues in dispute.

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