Understanding Parole: Paul Bernardo Eligible for Full Parole in February 2018.

• Author: Davison, Charles
• Position: Viewpoint

February 2018 marks 25 years since the arrest of Paul Bernardo for the rapes and murders of two young women in Ontario. Following one of the longest and most highly publicized criminal trials in Canadian history, he was convicted of two counts of first degree murder and given the automatic and mandatory sentence required by Canadian law: life imprisonment without eligibility for parole for 25 years. Now that 25 years have passed, Bernardo is eligible to appear before the Parole Board of Canada and seek its permission to leave the correctional institution where he is housed in order to begin reintegration back into Canadian society.

It seems unlikely that Bernardo will exercise this option, and even more unlikely that he will succeed (among other things, he was also responsible for a startling number of other sexual assaults, as well as the death of the sister of his wife and fellow killer Karla Holmoka). However, we can expect that this anniversary may lead to public discussion and controversy about the idea of possible release and return of someone who has committed such terrible crimes to live among the rest of us, in a community somewhere in this country.

It is relatively rare in Canada that someone who is sentenced to imprisonment will actually be in custody for the full length of their sentence. Victims and their supporters (including some vocal political allies) often complain about this and argue for harsher and longer punishments.

However, our system seeks to combine punishment for wrongdoing with correction and rehabilitation in an effort to ensure the individual does not misbehave again in the future. As a result, various forms of early release privileges have long been an essential part of our penal/correctional system. Most offenders who receive fixed term of imprisonment (that is, something less than a life sentence) will be released around the time when they have served two-thirds of the total sentence length. Some offenders are granted parole even earlier than the two-thirds point (where they have been able to demonstrate the risk they will reoffend is very low, and there is no longer a legitimate penal purpose to detain them any longer). At the same time, it is also possible for an offender to be kept in custody for longer than two-thirds of the sentence--and sometimes right to the very end of the term ordered. This happens most often when, by their conduct as a prisoner the individual has demonstrated that they continue to...