Parole and Life Licence

In England and Wales prisoners serving determinate sentences of more than 12 months become eligible for consideration for release on pa­role licence when they have served one-third of the sentence, or six months, whichever expires the later. (In Scotland they also qualify after 12 months.) About three-quarters of prisoners serving sentences of less than two years receive parole. However, for those serving sentences of over five years for violence and drug trafficking parole is granted only in exceptional circumstances, or otherwise for a few months at the end of the sentence. The parole licence remains in force until the date on which the prisoner would otherwise have been released from prison. It pre­scribes the conditions, including the maintenance of contact with a su­pervising officer, with which the offender must comply. In 1987 about 5.2 per cent of prisoners granted parole in England and Wales, and virtually none in Scotland, were recalled to prison. Parole is not available in Northern Ireland, which has more generous remission terms.

The release of prisoners serving life sentences is at the discretion of the Home Secretary or in Scotland the Secretary of State for Scotland, subject to a favourable recommendation by the Parole Board or the.Pa­role Board for Scotland and after consultation with the judiciary. The Secretaries of State are not, however, bound to accept such a recommen­dation for release, nor are they bound by the views of the judiciary. At the discretion of the Home Secretary, people serving life sentences for the murder of police and prison officers, terrorist murders, murder by fire­arms in the course of robbery and the sexual or sadistic murder of chil­dren are normally detained for at least 20 years. At the end of 1987 there were about 2,400 life sentence prisoners detained in prisons in England and Wales of whom about 140 had been detained for 15 years or more. On release, life sentence prisoners remain on licence for the rest of their lives and are subject to recall should their behaviour suggest that they might again be a danger to the public. In Northern Ireland the Secretary of State reviews life sentence cases on the recommendation of an internal review body in such a way as to reflect their gravity and to take account of Northern Ireland's special circumstances.