By SCOTT INGLIS
Probation officers say they will be unable to cope when more than 1400 violent criminals are automatically released in the next three years unless staff numbers are substantially increased.
Their union, the Public Service Association, says more officers will be needed to cope with the 1415 offenders due out
by the end of 2003.
The criminals - who include at least 135 serious sex offenders, 47 convicted of aggravated robbery and 13 of manslaughter - are entitled to freedom after serving two-thirds of their sentences.
A total of 610 are due out next year, 510 in 2002 and 295 in the year after that. This compares with 109 this year.
The increase is because tougher sentences have been handed down and more criminals jailed in the past decade.
"Certainly, if you just take those releases in isolation and say nothing else changes, I doubt that in many areas of the country the probation service could cope with it," said PSA organiser Alan Ware.
In some parts of the country, probation officers were already under huge pressure, he said. In Auckland, south of the Harbour Bridge, staff were handling too many cases and working too many hours.
The Herald has learned that some officers are handling about 70 cases each. There are about 700 officers nationwide.
"We have high stress levels," Mr Ware said. "We know of numerous instances of probation officers who have caseloads way beyond acceptable or manageable levels."
Corrections Minister Matt Robson said last night that he was approaching another Budget round. "I'm very aware of the resource needs of the probation service and probation officers and the load they're carrying."
But Mr Robson stopped short of promising more officers.
He said that not all of the 1415 prisoners would be released, because some were likely to be made to serve more or all of their sentence.
The Government was looking at giving the Corrections Department wider powers to try to convince the Parole Board to keep such inmates in longer.
The department was also starting to use sophisticated ways of identifying criminals who were most likely to reoffend upon release.
