Full Parole Assessment Reports

Full parole assessment reports are prepared when an offender is making their first appearance before the NZPB for a parole hearing. The report provides the NZPB with information about the offender's:

• response to sentence management (including interventions) during the course of their prison sentence 
• response to previous parole orders (if applicable) 
• additional or ongoing risks 
• rehabilitative needs and plans for how these have been/will be addressed 
• reintegrative plans and needs (accommodation, employment, finance, relationships, community supports, victim issues, health care)
• proposed special conditions of release 
• proposed length of conditions.

Note: The full parole assessment report is usually the first report to be completed on the offender.  All other reports follow this report. 

When the report is required 

A full parole assessment report must be completed for all offenders who are:

• subject to an indeterminate sentence or a long term sentence of imprisonment (more than 24 months) 
• eligible to apply for early release on parole.

Timeframes 

The full parole assessment report is initiated by Prison Services (PS) after the NZPB administrator has:

• issued the 'New Zealand Parole Board Hearing Circular' 
• notified PS of an offender's eligibility to appear before the NZPB.

PS will commence the full parole assessment tasks 15 weeks prior to the offender's parole hearing and complete them 10 weeks prior to the hearing, at which point the parole assessment report is passed to CPPS.

CPPS have six weeks to complete their part of the process. When CPPS have completed their part of the report, it is sent back to PS.  PS have one week to complete and finalise the report.  The report must be returned to NZPB no later than three weeks prior to the hearing. 

Report Sections 

The following table outlines the sections of the full parole assessment report and who is responsible for finalising them.

Note: Both the sentence planner and the probation officer provide input into the ‘Release proposal’ section but the probation officer is responsible for the final version of this section.

IOMS workflow  

The IOMS workflow (data capture) sections include:

Note: The comments made by the sentence planner in the release proposal section in IOMS do not show through to the parole assessment report; these are just intended for the probation officer.