“I don’t trust the Parole Board, I don’t trust Corrections, and at the end of the day I don’t trust the government either. George Halvagis
Public confidence in Victoria’s parole system was further eroded this week after two reports – one of which the state government tried to keep secret – showed a system in deep crisis.
On Tuesday Premier Denis Napthine called for the Adult Parole Board to make the community’s safety its primary concern, after receiving a highly critical report from High Court Judge Ian Callinan of the system’s shortcomings.
Forty-eight hours later the contents of a second review – produced in 2011 by Professor James Ogloff – were made public, which showed another catalogue of failures in the Victorian justice system which allowed convicted criminals to kill while on parole.
For the past two weeks lawyers acting on behalf of the Department of Justice tried to keep the report secret, only for the coroner to rule it should be released in the public interest.
The Callinan review found a raft of failures in relation to the procedures of Victoria’s Adult Parole Board and made 23 recommendations to improve the system.
Central to the report were failings made by the board in relation to Jill Meagher’s killer Adrian Bayley, which revealed the board’s file on Bayley was “ill-organised” and did not contain a complete run-down of his criminal history.
Mr Callinan said the board had “cause and opportunity to cancel Bayley’s parole” after Bayley appealed in 2012 against a sentence given to him for attacking a man in Geelong.
Bayley was on parole at the time of that appeal, and the appeal was still pending when he murdered Jill Meagher.
The Ogloff review – which investigated nine cases of murder committed by parole violators who were under supervision by Community Corrections Services (CCS) – shows a similar litany of oversights and blunders.
The review said follow-ups on information by CCS staff was an exception rather than a rule and that crucial reporting on parole supervision to the Adult Parole Board was often too little or too late.
The Ogloff report’s findings were completed in September 2011 – one year before Jill Meagher was murdered.
The Government says 10 of the 17 Ogloff review recommendations were implemented before Adrian Bayley was allowed to remain on parole and that one remains outstanding.
George Halvagis, whose daughter Mersina was murdered in 1997 by serial killer Peter Dupas, told Neos Kosmos he was sceptical that the parole process could be fixed on the basis of both reports’ recommendations.
“I don’t trust the Parole Board, I don’t trust Corrections, and at the end of the day I don’t trust the government either,” said Mr Halvagis, who has been a long-time advocate of changes to the parole system.
“I’d like to see members of the public on the board, not just former judges and millionaires who have never had anything to do with the pain felt by victims’ families.
“Unless they put at least four relatives of homicide victims on the board it’s not going to work.”
Corrections Victoria, the agency responsible for managing prisoners released on parole, is the agency most culpable, says Mr Halvagis.
“I have been fighting with them for 16 years… Corrections is the one that is accountable. All these people lost their lives because of Corrections.”
Mr Halvagis was speaking to Neos Kosmos as he accompanied the family of murdered Melbourne woman Sarah Cafferkey to the trial of her killer Steven James Hunter. Hunter was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.