Mike Williams: "Clever" Smith still came up short

Mike Williams

WHEN I called the Corrections Department in Wellington last week to arrange a jail visit, the senior official I spoke to described the cloud of gloom that had descended on head office after Phillip Smith's disappearance during a three-day sponsored release from Spring Hill Jail near Huntly.
It seemed as though all of the staff felt personally responsible, even though the blunders that led to the prisoner absconding could not, in my view, be laid at the door of the department.
Corrections is a large government department, employing more than 8000 staff. These people not only manage and staff the 17 prisons and nearly 9000 prisoners, they also attend to about 40,000 others serving community sentences, probation or otherwise under the supervision of the department at any given time.
I make this point because, given the scope of responsibilities undertaken by this department, incidents like Smith absconding are extremely rare.
There are, nevertheless, valid questions which must be asked and answered.
Firstly, a fair question is why a convicted paedophile and murderer with a string of other convictions was allowed sponsored release. The answer seems to be that Smith, like nearly all offenders was almost inevitably going to be released at some time, possibly as early as next year.
He received a life sentence with a 13-year non-parole period in 1995 so he has presumably been eligible for a parole hearing since 2008 or 2009.
Smith could not have received the indefinite sentence of preventative detention as it was not available to New Zealand courts until 2002.
With a possible release looming, Corrections staff would have to be focused on rehabilitation strategies; one of which is sponsored temporary releases.
Smith had family members who were prepared to take responsibility for him during these periods of release and two or three such releases seem to have occurred with difficulty.
There is no evidence that Smith offended on these releases and he seems not to have attempted to contact victims.
Smith's Corrections Department handlers might have been justified in thinking "so far so good".
A second question would be how Smith managed to acquire a passport in his birth name of Traynor while in jail.
The answer is a combination of the fact that there is no law against making a passport application from jail, and that police or court procedure at the very beginning of Smith's long line of offences captured the name Smith which followed him through trials, sentences, appeals and Parole Board hearings.
It seems that although Smith was known to use at least one other alias, there was no procedure at the time of his first conviction to link his legal name of Traynor to his usage name of Smith which he acquired at an early age when his birth parents separated and his mother found a new relationship.
Smith used his legal name to undertake university studies and seems to have made this known to at least one Parole Board hearing.
It would seem to be a wise development for the police, when preparing court documentation for serious charges likely to result in long jail sentences, to access the Registry of Birth Deaths and Marriage and verify the legal identity of defendants.
The Department of Internal Affairs which operates this registry already has an excellent on-line service.
Questions are also being asked about how Smith formed a mail order company which traded, apparently profitably, while in jail.
It was not, at the time Smith was in business with former cell mate from Hawke's Bay, illegal to run an enterprise from jail, although shortly after Smith was discovered, the practice was put at the discretion of jail managers.
Give Smith's previous form, he would be unlikely to manage such a feat now.
One aspect of this case is why Smith was not equipped with a GPS tracking bracelet during his sponsored temporary release periods.
This is much harder to answer and it seems that such a condition of release could have been specified by the Parole Board, which allowed these releases.
I have attended a day-long session of the trial Drug and Alcohol Court in Henderson, Auckland, where offenders are sentenced to abstinence rather than a jail term.
Many of these offenders are equipped with a high-tech ankle bracelet which monitors alcohol consumption via a bureau in Colorado, US.
Out of these events comes one glaring conclusion. For all Smith's cunning, manipulations and supposed cleverness, he'll be back in jail soon with a significant addition to his sentence.
If the message that crime is stupid and doesn't pay gets through to one potential offender, this drama has had some value.
¦Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is chief executive officer of the NZ Howard League. All opinions are his and not the newspaper's.