Parole hearings 'to treble' after 'fairness' ruling

The Parole Board says it will have to hold about 11,500 more hearings every year for prisoners who want to be released - even though there is no prospect of them being let out.

It comes after the Supreme Court said there must be more emphasis in England and Wales on "fairness" to inmates.

The Parole Board says October's ruling will treble the number of hearings, raising its costs by at least £10m.  Read more...

Sir David Latham questions life prisoner reoffending

Reoffending rates among life sentence prisoners may be higher than figures suggest, according to the chairman of the Parole Board of England and Wales.

Internal estimates indicate that, each year, between 1% and 2% of lifers freed on parole commit further crimes.
But Sir David Latham told BBC News the current statistics were not "robust" and it was hard to be sure if the right parole decisions were being made.

He also warned of the "danger" of an "over-reaction" to high-profile cases.  Read more...

Inside the Parole Board: how freedom is granted or denied for prisoners

Unprecedented access opens door to the often publicly criticised, but little understood, workings of the Parole Board

A Parole Board hearing starts early and with little fanfare. There are no grand, oak-lined courtrooms or spacious chambers. Instead, in a cramped room in the bowels of a modern, unprepossessing building just beyond the shadow of parliament, panel members grab paper cups of powdered coffee and converse about the comparative quality of the beverages served in prisons. Then, firmly shutting the door on the outside world, the panel squeeze around a table dominated by teetering piles of prison, probation and psychiatric reports and victim statements, and begin their work.  Read more...