Changes to the Temporary Release Scheme
Current Practice
At present, depending on the length of sentence, prisoners can qualify for community visits (CVs) 18 months before the end of sentence but only qualify for home leave or work experience during the last year.
The Probation Service conduct a check on home circumstances and confirm the nominated address is suitable for home visits but no such checks are carried out for CVs. While we insist that a prisoner is collected for a CV and returned to prison by a named person that is acceptable to the Prison Service, we have very limited control over their activities once out in the community.
Prisoners on CVs are located in the mainstream residential units and consequently, there is a significant risk of illicit items being trafficked back into the establishment.
Proposed Change
To reduce the level of risk associated with CVs, I would like to change where they are positioned in scheme, such that a prisoner will only be granted CVs when they are on community work and home leave. At present, this is during the last year of sentence and all male prisoners would be located in the Out-Workers Unit.
The risk with female prisoners would remain but they are very low volume and they are also isolated from the male prisoners.
Other Proposed Changes
In order that the Temporary Release Scheme may better reflect practice in the UK (and other jurisdictions where parole is an option) I propose a more liberal approach to permitting access to the community and preparing a prisoner for release.
During the last 12 months of sentence (at the stage defined on the attached table) once granted home leave and work experience, the prisoner should be granted two periods of home leave per month instead of one, and three community visits per month instead of one. In effect, each week-end a prisoner could either be on home leave or on a community visit.
On considering the above, we must take account of the fact that prisoners in the UK (other than indeterminate sentences) are released at half sentence but in Jersey they remain in custody for two thirds.
Transitional arrangements for the implementation of the changes
Adverse Impact
From a prisoner’s perspective, the only adverse change to the scheme relates to the term that can be spent on Community Visits. At present this is determined by a sliding scale but prisoners sentenced to 54 months or longer can be considered for community visits during the last 18 months of the sentence. The revised scheme reduces this to the last 12 months of sentence.
While this is compensated by greater access to Home Leave and Community Visits, the Minister noted that there may be a number of prisoners approaching the 18 month stage early in 2014, who would have a high level of expectation that they were soon to qualify for Community Visits and consideration should be given to putting transitional arrangements in place.
Those Affected by the Change
Any prisoner serving a sentence of 54 months or more, with a liberation date after 01/01/2015 could be affected by the change. However, the more significant issue is in regard to reasonable notice. Those with liberation dates after 31st December 2015 have more than two years left to serve and would not qualify for consideration under the current scheme before June 2014. I suggest they will receive more than adequate notice of the change.
Consequently, we are only looking at those serving 54 months and over, with liberation dates in 2015. Once the UK residents and those recommended for deportation are removed, only 12 prisoners are affected. I propose that we protect the status of this group by allowing them to retain their current date of qualification for Community Visits.
Recommendation
It is recommended that the revised criteria for Temporary Release be implemented from 1 January 2014, but that those prisoners who are serving over 54 months with liberation dates in 2015, retain their current qualifying date for access to Community Visits.
W Millar
Governor
TEMPORARY RELEASE ELIGIBILITY DATES
Sentence | Normal Time to Serve (In months) | Home Leave/Work Placement/Community Visits | Home Detention Curfew |
| Time served to qualify | Time served to qualify |
12 Months | 8 | N/A | ^N/A |
13 Months | 9 | 6 | ^N/A |
14 Months | 9 | 6 | ^N/A |
15 Months | 10 | 7 | ^N/A |
16 Months | 11 | 7 | 10 |
17 Months | 11 | 8 | 10 |
18 Months | 12 | 8 | 10 |
19 Months | 13 | 8 | 10 |
20 Months | 13 | 9 | 10 |
21 Months | 14 | 9 | 11 |
22 Months | 15 | 10 | 12 |
23 Months | 15 | 10 | 12 |
24 Months | 16 | 11 | Last 4 months of sentence |
25 Months | 17 | 11 | “ |
26 Months | 17 | 12 | “ |
27 Months | 18 | 12 | “ |
28 Months | 19 | 12 | “ |
29 Months | 19 | 13 | “ |
30 Months | 20 | 13 | “ |
31 Months | 21 | 14 | “ |
32 Months | 21 | 14 | “ |
33 Months | 22 | 15 | “ |
34 Months | 23 | 15 | “ |
35 Months | 23 | 16 | “ |
36 Months | 24 | 16 | “ |
37 Months | 25 | 16 | “ |
38 Months | 25 | 17 | “ |
39 Months | 26 | 17 | “ |
40 Months | 27 | 18 | “ |
41 Months | 27 | 18 | “ |
42 Months | 28 | 19 | “ |
43 Months | 29 | 19 | “ |
44 Months | 29 | 20 | “ |
45 Months | 30 | 20 | “ |
46 Months | 31 | 20 | “ |
47 Months | 31 | 21 | “ |
48 Months | 32 | 21 | “ |
* Sentences over 48 months qualify for Home Leave and work experience during the last 12 months of time to serve.