It was revealed last month that the Parole Board will be the subject of a ‘root and branch’ review potentially opening up hearings to victims of crime as well as members of the press (bit.ly/3mO6Jfn). Is this a win for advocates of open justice or a rather shabby knee jerk response of a government pandering to the baser instincts of the tabloid press?
Brian Lea of Nottingham didn’t need much persuading. ‘The stuffy, almost ignorant people on the Parole Board should have been put out to grass years ago,’ he wrote in the letters page of The Sun last week. ‘Let’s hope it’s not replaced by something even more stupid.’ It’s a bit harsh on the judges, psychologists, psychiatrists, probation officers as well as lay members who typically comprise parole boards.
Reform of the parole system has been inevitable since the furore over the initial decision to back the release of the so called ‘black-cab rapist’ John
