All but one of the 23 parole reform recommendations put forward by retired High Court Justice Ian Callinan have been implemented in the past two years.

The final reform, the implementation of an electronic database and case management system, is set to come into effect in December.

Dr Sue Davies, Head of the Department of Social Inquiry at La Trobe University, spoke to upstart about the reforms.

“There is an attempt to make the process of parole and its handling more systematic, to improve management systems and to make the processes more streamlined,” Dr Davies says.

“For example, there’s no automatic review for parole anymore at a certain stage of their sentence, when they become eligible to apply for parole.”

The Napthine Government commissioned Callinan’s review following the rape and murder of Jill Meagher by Adrian Bailey in 2012. The Labor government has continued implementing the reforms since taking office last year.

“Much has been done to reform parole in Victoria, but the Andrews Labor Government will stay vigilant to make sure the system works,” Minister for Corrections Wade Noonan said. “The reforms mean that Victoria now has the toughest parole system in Australia.”

Some of the reforms are intended to limit the accessibility of parole to more serious offenders or reduce the number of prisoners applying for parole. These include:

• Serious offenders will be treated differently to those who commit less serious offenses.
• Violent or sexual offenders must undertake required prison programs and have behaved satisfactorily during the second half of their time in prison to be considered.
• Offenders who breach parole or re-offend must serve at least half their remaining sentence before being reconsidered for parole, with some exceptions.
• Prisoners must prove to the parole board that they are not a danger to the community.

However, most of the reforms were made to improve the operation of the parole system. This includes measurements such as increasing staff and the parole board’s budget.

The changes to the system appear to be having an effect.

A total of 834 prisoners who applied for parole in the 2013-14 period were denied, according to the Adult Parole Board of Victoria’s Annual Report. This is almost double the 425 denied orders placed the previous year.

With this many parole applications rejected, it is fair to question whether lower-level offenders are being denied the opportunity to reintegrate into society. However, a total of 1,313 parole orders were made in the same period–almost 500 more than were denied–suggesting such concerns are not completely warranted.

“There is a difference between a person who may get a six-month sentence for a lower level crime and a very, very serious offender,” Noonan told 3AW.

It is also possible that tougher criteria is discouraging the rehabilitation of prisoners.

“The anecdotal information coming out of prison at the moment is that a lot of prisoners are saying that there’s no point in doing any programs that are on offer. They feel that they’re not going to get parole anyway so there’s no point in even doing the programs,” Dr Davies says.

The report also reveals that 761 parole orders were cancelled, almost half of which occurred within three months of the offender being released. This is an 18 per cent drop from the number on cancellations the year before. The Parole Board attributes part of the decline to the decreased number of parole orders being made.

The focus of the $84.1 million wave of reforms has been ensuring society remains protected from dangerous individuals. “We’re strengthening the parole system to keep our communities safe,” the Minister for Corrections said.

Dr Davies takes issue with the argument that denying parole is worse for community safety than a poorly operated system.

“There is a very strong argument that has been put forward over years and continues to be put – that if people aren’t released on parole at the end of their sentence, or before the end of their sentence, then they come to the end of their sentence and they are allowed to re-enter the community without any reintegration, without any supervision and that, arguably, can endanger the community more than having an ineffective parole system.

“It reinforces the general perception that prisons are full of people who are about to unleash havoc on society and that’s not often the case,” she says.

The purpose of parole is to supervise and support offenders as they reintegrate into the community. Though the reforms will likely increase the efficiency and improve the management of the parole board, it could be at the expense of prisoners who need help to rehabilitate.

Ethan Miller is a third-year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University. You can follow him on Twitter: @ethanmiller1994.