New Zealand Parole Board

The New Zealand Parole Board is an independent statutory body established in 2002 that considers offenders for parole. Its task "is to undertake an assessment of the risk that long-term sentenced offenders might pose to the safety of the community if they were to be released before the end of their sentence". The Board also sets conditions of release for offenders so their reintegration back in to the community can be effectively managed. Once the conditions are set it becomes the responsibility of Community Corrections to manage the offender." 'Long term' is defined as more than 24 months. Short-term prisoners (on sentences of less than two years) are automatically released after serving half their sentence.

Hon. Warwick Gendall was appointed as chairperson of the board in 2012.

As a British Colony, New Zealand adopted the penal system common in Britain and the country’s first jails were established in the 1840s. At that time, prisoners were crammed together regardless of their age, gender, mental health problems or crimes. Conditions were harsh and based on the concepts of retribution and deterrence rather than rehabilitation. When the country was divided into provinces in 1853, the administration of prisons was controlled by provincial governments. In 1876 the provinces were abolished and the colonial government established a standardised national prison system. At this time in New Zealand's history, there was no concept of parole or early release.

In 1881 an authoritarian army officer, Colonel Arthur Hume, was appointed as the first Inspector-General of prisons (and later Commissioner of Police). He started a major prison-building programme and advocated for the introduction of the Habitual Criminals Act passed in 1906 ‘for the indeterminate detention of incorrigible offenders’. He also introduced an early version of parole whereby prisoners were given credit for good behaviour and hard work that could lead to earlier release. Managing released prisoners required a form of probation service. An early version of the New Zealand Probation Service was introduced in 1886.

Hume retired in 1909, allowing Minister of Justice Sir John Findlay to introduce a more rehabilitative approach to the treatment of prisoners. The next year, the Crimes Amendment Act established Prison Boards which determined the length of prison sentences. If the local board considered a prisoner to be 'reformed' they could be released on probation, although the board could also keep ‘habitual criminals’ in jail indefinitely. But meaningful change was slow. In 1928, H.G. Mason, who eventually became the Minister of Justice, said in parliament that it was the function of the prisons ‘to imprison, to flog, to hang, not to care for a man in any other way’.

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