Parole Board Judge piss poor

Alt TV/Fleet FM Breakfast News
Parole Board Judge piss poor
Many of the 38 members of the parole board, including chairman Judge David Carruthers are in Wellington this week for a two-day training seminar, which is part of the board's response to the criticism over the management of double murderer Graeme Burton's parole. While the worth of parole had been questioned after the Burton case, Judge Carruthers said a well-run parole system remained the best way for convicted criminals to re-enter society after serving their sentences.
"There are 231 murderers now on parole. If they weren't, if we had life without parole, that's another prison, half-a-billion dollars, and $20 million a year looking after them," he said. While one could agree that Parole is a good way of creating an incentive for good behaviour and some type of rehabilitation, surely to have little else than bean counter cost arguments as your only evidence is of no solace whatsoever to the victims of those released who go on a rampage. “It’s sad my son had to die, but his death helped save the Government half a billion because we let his killer out early”, just seems a little cold. And if this is the way David Carruthers is making his decisions, then he simply is not right for the job. We only want to release prisoners if we are as certain as we can be that they won’t hurt other people (a process we could make easier for ourselves if we invested resources into rehabilitation courses and paid for better environments in prisons), but to release prisoners because it’s costing us money is just insane and a dreadful sin to commit on our citizens who become their victims.