The future of parole in the UK—planning for failure?

• The parole system is not working efficiently; there is a high percentage of prisoners on recall and a lack of legal assistance available.
• The government’s involvement in the parole system.

All is not well with parole. The system has low visibility, is inadequately staffed and funded, and is not well regulated. Many institutions and people are involved: prison service, probation, police, lawyers (sometimes), criminologists, psychiatrists, victims, and of course the prisoners. The dossiers prepared on the prisoner leave much to be desired—there are unfortunate delays in keeping appointments, the hearings are an uneasy mixture of the formal and the informal, victims are little involved, legal assistance is lacking, little information, advice and assistance is available for the prisoner, training and support in prison is inadequate, and opportunities outside on release are inadequate.

Perhaps it is not surprising that 14% of prisoners are on recall, having been released on licence but then brought