Corrections Amendment (Breach of Parole) Bill 2013: A reaction to Jill Meagher's Death

The Corrections Amendment (Breach of Parole) Bill 2013 was introduced and second reading moved in Victorian Parliament this week in a bid to see parole offenders, like the man who murdered Jill Meagher, be convicted for a separate criminal offence of breaching parole.

According to the Explanatory Memorandum, the dual purposes of the bill are:

• to amend the Corrections Act 1986 (VIC) to create the offence of breaching a prescribed term or condition of a parole order and to permit police to arrest and detain a prisoner on parole upon breach of a prescribed parole term or condition; and

• to amend the Sentencing Act 1991 (VIC) to provide that sentences imposed for the offence of breaching a prescribed term or condition of a parole order are to be served cumulatively on other prison sentences.

According to an article on ABC News, The changes come after several Victorian women, including ABC employee Jill Meagher, were murdered by people out on parole.

"The bill also gives police new powers to arrest and charge a parolee for a breach of parole terms and conditions, whether or not it involves further offending," Premier Napthine said.

"This means police effectively have extra powers to deal with parolees before they have committed further offences, by arresting them for parole braches and putting them back behind bars."

But criminal lawyer Rob Stary, a spokesman for the Law Institute of Victoria, says the change is unnecessary.

"The parole board in Victoria has a very broad discretion about reclaiming a person; they don't have to wait for a conviction," he told PM.

"If they are, for instance, involved in drug use or are living an erratic life or they are mixing with an undesirable peer group, the parole board in this state has a very broad discretion to reclaim the offender.

"We say that discretion should remain and the parole board should have that capacity to reclaim a person."

Corrections Minister Edward O'Donohue says the Government has also commissioned former High Court justice Ian Callinan to carry out a review of the Adult Parole Board's Operations, which is currently underway.

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