Government in push for longer jail terms

Prisoners convicted of serious offences should serve more of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole, Minister for National Security Michael Dunkley said yesterday.

Mr Dunkley reiterated that Government is looking to change the law to ensure inmates doing time for major offences like gun crime, murder and rape would have to serve at least half their sentence before being considered for early release.

At present, prisoners are eligible for early release after serving just one third of their jail time.

And Mr Dunkley added that new rules to crack down on those breaching the terms of their parole would also be put before Parliament aimed at making it easier to put people back behind bars if necessary.

Mr Dunkley said: “We are in discussions with the Attorney General’s Chambers about mandating a longer stay in prison for people incarcerated for certain offences.

“That’s things like gun offences, murder, rape — the serious offences the community are worried about. The indictable offences at the top end.”

He added: “The way I look at it is, conditions change when the times change. It’s up to any Government to be responsive to the people and what they want.”

But he said a two-approach would also offer prisoners carrots as well as sticks.

Mr Dunkley told us in an interview: “We will make changes the people will be supportive of and send the right message. It’s two Fs – we have to be firm and we have to be fair.

“We understand that while prisoners are incarcerated they need to be productive with their time. The Commissioner of Prisons has been very energetic in allowing inmates to be involved, not only in educational programmes, but programmes with the Department of Parks and the Department of Works and Engineering or at the prison farm.

“We will give them the opportunity to expend their energies in ways where they can get some real satisfaction.”

Mr Dunkley said controversy over an inmate on a work detail in an area where family of his victim lived had highlighted the need for special care.

Mr Dunkley stressed: “At no time were inmates unsupervised or was there any danger to the community. We, however, acted on the concerns.”

And he said: “Along the way there will be challenges — we have to make sure we run our programmes in the proper way.”

Mr Dunkley added: “I like to get things done and I won’t make excuses. People will get upset, they won’t always like the answers, but if we keep working, the results will show we are making successful decisions.”

He added that closer monitoring of parolees from jail would also be introduced to ensure the terms of release were adhered to.

Mr Dunkley said: “We also want to deal with breaches of parole – currently, there is a significant hole when someone is suspected of breaching parole. We will fill that gap.”