Determining Whether to Conduct RR Enquiries

This topic outlines the process to follow to decide whether to conduct RR enquiries at an offender’s hearing.

RR enquiries are conducted during the parole assessment process as part of the preparation of the parole assessment report.  RR must be considered as part of the wider release proposal.

At an offender’s first parole hearing 

If the offender is appearing before the NZPB to be considered for parole for the first time, then the RR checklist should be used to determine whether or not to canvass RR.

The RR checklist is contained in the pre-release planning worksheet, and is completed by both the sentence planner and the probation officer.

If the offender is not excluded by the criteria contained in the RR checklist, RR enquiries must be conducted and RR must be canvassed in the full parole assessment report.

Reference: For detailed guidelines on completing the RR checklist see Pre-release Planning Worksheet.

Exceptions 

CPPS can state in the parole assessment report that the NZPB may wish to consider RR at the next hearing if, during the parole assessment enquiries, CPPS considers that an offender’s release proposal may benefit from RR by:

• preventing further offending
• assisting the offender’s rehabilitation and reintegration.

Offenders nearing their final/statutory release date 

All offenders nearing their final/statutory release date should be considered for RR.  For a long term offender, RR would ideally be canvassed at the hearing about 12 months before their final/statutory release date.

This allows RR to be used to provide a staggered release proposal, creating more structure around the offender’s release plan.

If PS has not canvassed RR with the offender, CPPS can, depending on timeframes:

• request the sentence planner canvass RR with the offender
• state in the parole assessment report that the NZPB may wish to consider RR at the next hearing.

At a second or subsequent parole hearing  

If the offender has appeared before the NZPB previously to be considered for parole (and this has not been granted), the NZPB will decide whether or not RR should be canvassed. This will be clearly stated in their decision.

Note: In the longer term it is expected that a set of exclusion criteria will be developed to determine the offenders for whom RR should be canvassed at second or subsequent hearings.

Note: The RR checklist is not used for second or subsequent parole hearings.

The following table outlines the process to follow to determine whether RR should be canvassed at a second or subsequent hearing.