Implementing the Pre-parole Liaison Strategy

Implementing the pre-release strategy may involve various staff working on different tasks that they have been assigned. It is important that staff work collaboratively to ensure that a robust release plan is developed.

All progress made in completing tasks should be provided to the sentence planner or probation officer so that they can:

• ensure that the strategy is on track
• identify any new tasks that need to be undertaken or changes to the strategy that need to be made.

Reviewing progress

As the owner of pre-parole liaison, it is the reponsibility of the probation officer to ensure that liaison is operating effectively, that the pre-parole liaison strategy is being implemented and that progress is being made.

The probation officer should periodically review the process to ensure that:

• all involved staff are up-to-date with the progress made
• staff are not working at cross-purposes
• the prison-based tasks are on track by checking in with the Sentence Planner
• the Reintegration Caseworker is on target in developing the reintegration plan (if they are working intensively with the offender)
• any community agencies or support people are still on board.

The probation officer must ensure that progress is fed back to the sentence planner and the reintegration caseworker (if they intensively with the offender).

It is not expected that the probation officers will have to spend a significant amount of time addressing an offender's re-integrative needs as part of pre-parole liaison. If the offender has a high level of re-integrative neesd, an urgent referral should be made to the reintegrative caseworker.

Note: Probation officers will not interact directly with the offender before release as part of pre-parole liaison, unless local community-based meetings (e.g. those organised by Kia Marama and Te Piriti) are organised.

The level of liaison and complexity of the pre-parole liaison strategy will dictate the frequency of reviews. The more complex and involved the liaison, the more frequently the probation officer will need to review progress of the strategy.

Procedure after offender attends parole hearing

After the offender has appeared before the NZPB to be considered for release of parole, the probation officer will need to review the board's decision to determine the next steps.

The following table outlines the steps to take depending on the outcome of the parole hearing.

Re-allocation of pre-parole liaison

If an offender's proposed address changes and the new address is in an area outside the management of the service centre, then the pre-parole liaison will need to be re-allocated to another service centre (if it is considered that the new address may be suitable).

In this case the service manager and probation officer must ensure that:

• the service manager in the new service centre is notified in a timely manner
• a progress review is completed and recorded in IOMS case-notes prior to the re-allocation
• the sentence planner and PCO sentence planning are notified of the re-allocation along with the details of the service manager in the new service centre.