The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

ACTING Corrections Commissioner Doan Cleare said four town hall meetings would be held before a bill establishing a parole system for inmates is tabled in the House of Assembly.

The first meeting will be held at Doris Johnson Senior High School tomorrow at 7pm. Acting Commissioner Cleare said a symposium featuring presentations on parole from international guests would be held on September 13 and 14.

“The community has to be sensitised first,” he said. “Once we sensitise the community, a white paper will go out, which is now completed, and then the minister will make an announcement. Then the government will determine the date when it will be rolled out, but we are expecting it to roll out sometime this year.

“Now, what’s going to happen is we’re going to have a parole board and the parole will pretty much control who gets parole and what the conditions are. Also, if the judge gives you seven years, you will get seven years, so it will be the parole board who will determine the programmes you go into and the conditions in terms of you being released from here.”

CommuniMr Cleare noted that a parole board is different from the Prerogative of Mercy Committee, which allows the governor general to pardon convicted criminals.

In 2016, the Christie administration appointed a Parole and Re-entry Steering Committee to propose a policy framework for a parole system.

The Minnis administration said it would table a bill to introduce a parole system but did not do so.