Terms of Reference

The Queensland Government is committed to a corrective services system that delivers community safety and crime prevention through the humane containment, supervision and rehabilitation of offenders. The effectiveness of the parole process, which includes Queensland’s parole boards and Queensland Corrective Services’ supervision of offenders on parole, is fundamental to the integrity of the corrective services system.

To ensure Queensland’s parole system operates as effectively as possible into the future to ensure community safety, Mr Walter Sofronoff QC was engaged to review:

1. the effectiveness of the parole boards’ current operations including decision making, structure and membership;
2. the transparency of parole board decision making;
3. the adequacy of existing accountability mechanisms for the parole boards and the parole system generally, and other mechanisms to ensure parole board decisions appropriately address risk to the community and victims, particularly women, and successful offender re-integration, including consideration of the independent Inspectorate recommended in the Callinan Review of the Victorian parole system;
4. the factors that would increase offenders’ successful completion of parole and reintegration into the community and enhance community safety including, in particular:
   • effective supervision, management and monitoring, and
   • the availability and effectiveness of programs, services and interventions including for mental health disorders and drug and/or alcohol abuse
5. the effectiveness of the legislative framework for parole, including court ordered parole, in Queensland.

In conducting the review, Mr Walter Sofronoff QC:

• examined and regarded best practice in parole systems operating in other Australasian jurisdictions, particularly in regards to effective ways to manage risk when releasing a person on parole; and
• sought input from relevant experts, including those with knowledge of and experience of the criminal justice system, organisations working with offenders, victims’ organisations, and academic researchers.

The report, which included findings and recommendations to ensure Queensland’s parole system operates as effectively as possible to ensure community safety, was provided to the Premier and Minister for Arts and the Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services and Minister for Corrective Services on 30 November 2016.