KEY POINTS:
Justice Minister Mark Burton is prepared to look at whether it needs to be made easier for police to revoke parole and to plug gaps exposed by the Graeme Burton case.
Burton is due to appear in Wellington District Court on Friday facing 23 charges including the murder of father-of-two Karl Kuchenbecker, the attempted murder of two others, aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
Five weeks before Mr Kuchenbecker died, police asked for Burton's parole to be revoked.
But officers were unable to act because there was no evidence the 35-year-old had committed a crime, despite missing meetings with his probation officer.
The information they did have, from confidential sources, was not enough for a sworn affidavit the Probation Service needed to revoke the parole.
Minister Burton said yesterday that if there was an anomaly in the standard of evidence required he "would certainly be very much open to advice on how we fix that".
Any changes could be attached to legislation already before Parliament, he said, referring to the Criminal Justice Reform Bill.
Changes under the bill, now before a select committee, include no parole for short sentences and, for any sentence over 12 months, a minimum two-thirds must be served.
Mr Burton said that meant only people near the end of their sentences and after undergoing programmes would be eligible.
"We would look ... to making the risk to the safety of the community the decisive consideration for the Parole Board."
This would improve safety as well as making it clear on what grounds decisions were made.
Mr Burton said the changes also aimed to make a more effective use of prison time.
"An increase in the work training and education programmes in prisons, the drug rehabilitation programmes, mental health programmes," he said.
The aim was to have a programme that prepared inmates for life on the outside. "In the end, that's in every individual's interest and it's in the wider community's interests."
Three investigations are under way into the events leading up to Graeme Burton's arrest on January 6.
The Police Complaints Authority is reviewing what happened on the day, the Corrections Department is assessing its management of Burton and the information it gave to the Parole Board and the board is examining its decision to grant the prisoner parole.
Judge David Carruthers, chairman of the Parole Board, has admitted he feels personally responsible for the death of Mr Kuchenbecker.
Judge Carruthers was not on the panel that granted Burton parole but he told the Sunday Star-Times the death was shattering. "Extraordinary sense of personal responsibility when a thing like this happens," he said.
He also indicated there would be changes to the parole system.
"I'm determined if there is something we can do differently that is going to avoid this sort of tragedy in the future, we will do so."
Meanwhile, Burton, who was shot in the leg when police arrested him and later underwent surgey to amputate the limb, has had a quiet weekend in prison since attacking a guard escorting him there, then telling prison officers he would do "whatever it takes" to be shot again and avoid serving a prison sentence.
Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon said Burton, housed in a secure unit at Upper Hutt's Rimutaka Prison, had been quiet.
It is understood he is being fed meals on paper plates and with plastic utensils so he has no access to anything that could be used as a weapon.
