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A justice lobby group says it will back plans for a new parole board, but only if its purpose is to protect the victims of crime.
Parole Board chairman Justice Carruthers wants to set up a special board, to deal with applications from criminals who have almost no hope of getting out of jail.
Prisoners sentenced to preventive detention - which is a long-term sentence with no set release date - would be the most likely to be dealt with by the new board. Justice Carruthers says they are often sex offenders and offenders against children and it is difficult to release them. He believes it will save the main parole board wasting its time.
Garth McVicar from the Sensible Sentencing Trust agrees that changes to the current system are needed but has reservations about Justice Carruthers' idea.
"Currently, these offenders have to be seen by law every 12 months and that puts the victims under an enormous amount of stress. If the system is going to be designed to relieve that, then we would support it."
But Mr McVicar says if the initiative is solely financially driven, he is not in favour of it.
- Newstalk ZB
