The Wire

The NSW Labor Government is under fire today over its plan to make it harder for prisoners to get parole. Under the new law, if parole is refused when an offender first becomes eligible, there is an automatic deferral for 12 months and the inmate must make anotehr application to be considered again. Previously cases would have automatically be considered on a much more regular basis. The justification for these changes has been that the focus will now shift towards the rights victims, dr Eileen Baldry, a prison policy, from University of New South Wales, suggests that victims of crime would be far better served if parole took on a more restorative approach.