Establishment
The Parole Board Queensland (the Board) commenced on 03 July 2017.
The legislation establishing the Board was in response to recommendations from the Queensland Parole System Review by Mr Walter Sofronoff QC (as he then was).
The Board is established under Chapter 5 (Parole) of the Corrective Services Act 2006.
The Board is an independent statutory authority.
The Minister for Corrective Services has made Ministerial Guidelines to help the Board perform its functions.
The Ministerial Guidelines require that the highest priority for the Board should always be the safety of the community.
The Board must consider whether there is an unacceptable risk to the community if the prisoner is released to parole. The Board must also consider whether the risk to the community would be greater if the prisoner is not supervised on parole before they complete their sentence.
Functions of the Board
The Board makes decisions about:
- parole applications for Board ordered parole;
- parole applications for exceptional circumstances parole;
- suspending a parole order, including a court-ordered parole order;
- cancelling a parole order, including a court ordered parole order;
- amending a parole order, including a court-ordered parole order;
- approving a parolee travelling interstate for longer than 7 days;
- approving a parolee travelling overseas but only for a compassionate purpose and in exceptional circumstances;
- whether to make a no cooperation declaration against a no body – no parole prisoner;
- parole applications where the prisoner has links to terrorism. The Board must refuse to grant the parole application unless it is satisfied exceptional circumstances exist to justify granting the application.
The President can make restricted prisoner declarations.
Queensland Corrective Services is responsible for the day-to-day case management and supervision of prisoners who are released to the community on parole. Click here for information about how Queensland Corrective Services supervises parolees.
Queensland Corrective Services provides information for victims at the Victims Register.