Prisoners stuck in jail due to housing crisis

Tasmania is much better at locking people up than letting them out as prisoners are being stuck inside because of a longstanding housing crisis, a government report has revealed.

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PRISONERS continue to languish in jail because of a lack of suitable accommodation for parolees.

The Parole Board of Tasmania’s annual report revealed dozens of prisoners missed out on a chance of release because they had nowhere to go last financial year.

The report reveals that 27 per cent of parole applications made in 2019/20 were adjourned because the prisoner had nowhere suitable to go on their release — 61 prisoners in total.

In her comments, Board chair Leigh Mackey said the longstanding problem had still not been solved.

“A lack of suitable accommodation remains an ongoing issue for parole applicants with a number requiring lengthy adjournments for appropriate accommodation to be sources and others not able to progress at all due to the lack of accommodation,” she said.

The Parole Board considered 224 applications for parole last financial year: 40 per cent were successful, nine per cent refused and the remainder either adjourned or withdrawn.

Over the same period. 26 per cent of existing parole orders were revoked due to reoffending and 16 per cent were revoked due to noncompliance, such as illicit drug use.

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