26 September 2023

Plan go tough on prisoners’ paroles

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Queensland’s worst criminals now face the toughest parole laws in the nation.

Minister for Police and Corrective Services and Minister for Fire and Emergency Services, Mark Ryan said the laws targeted those who killed children and committed multiple murders.

Mr Ryan said under the legislation, the President of the independent Parole Board Queensland had the authority to declare that certain prisoners were prohibited from obtaining parole for a period of up to 10 years.

He said there was also no limit on how many times the President could make such a declaration, meaning that an individual prisoner could face multiple 10-year bans on parole.

Mr Ryan said the reforms were aimed at protecting victims’ families from the trauma of repeated and unnecessary parole applications.

“In addition, even if a declaration is not made in relation to a prisoner who falls into the relevant categories, the prisoner will still face further obstacles to obtaining parole,” he said.

“The prisoner will need to prove to the Parole Board Queensland that they do not pose a threat to the community before parole can be granted.”

The Minister said the reforms were about targeting those who committed the worst crimes with laws that protected the victims’ families from unnecessary trauma.

“Those life-sentenced prisoners who have killed a child or committed multiple murders have no right to expect they will get parole,” he said.

“In fact, they may never get parole — they may never even get to apply for parole.”

Mr Ryan said the legislation also included amendments to the ‘No Body No Parole’ framework to consider a prisoner’s cooperation at an earlier time, and restrict prisoners who had not cooperated from applying for parole until they chose to provide new information.

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