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Statistics

Check the New Zealand Parole Board's Annual Reports page for these years.

Hearing Volumes

The statistics below provide an overview of the number of offenders and related hearings that the Board deals with in a year.  Each year is measured from 1 July to 30 June.

  2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08  2008/09
No. of Cases 5461 5265 5229 5939 5165  4413
No. of Hearings 9026 8967 8746 10210 9195  8260

Hearing volumes

The number of cases relates to individual offenders - one offender can appear before the Board more than once in a 12 month period.

The hearing volumes figures on this website give an approximate indication of the Board’s workload and provide a comparison of workload.  It should be noted however, that this is an indication only – there are many other factors which contribute to the workload, for example; the amount of time allocated per case and the involvement of victims, offenders and other people in providing submissions to the Board about an offender’s case.

A note on adjourned hearings

The figures for hearing volumes include hearings that have been adjourned.  This represents additional workload because a hearing has been scheduled, reports have been requested and considered by Board members, and the offender (and in many cases their support people) have appeared before the Board.   Each member is required to familiarise themselves with the offender’s case.  Board members are scheduled to sit at various Board hearings around the country on a quasi-rotational basis, to ensure consistency in Board decision-making processes on a national level.

Number of offenders considered

The figures for the number of offenders considered for a particular case type list each offender once only for each year, for each case type.  The number of offenders figure is provided to indicate changes in the number of people participating in this part of the criminal justice system.

It should be noted that this figure differs from statistics provided in the Board’s Annual Reports which report finite outcomes (approved and declined decision outcomes) for hearings.  The figures provided for the number of offenders on this website report an offender once per case type.  For example, if an offender who is released on parole, is subsequently recalled to prison, and then released on parole again within the reporting year, this will be counted only once for parole and once for recall.

Outcome Volume1

 
 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09
Home detention 2 3966 3477 3098 3504 1840 n/a
Parole 1732 2584 3296 3971 4261 4273
Postponement 8 8 5 5 7 13
Release on conditions 621 412 420 405 482 479
Variation 285 256 198 210 235 416
Revocations 7 9 7 19 18 29
Recalls 389 334 270 394 405 521
Section 107 applications 34 26 22 20 21 9
Review of Section 107 Orders 3 61 91 106 95 102 99
Early referral (Considered by Chairperson) 9 3 2 11 4 2
Extended Supervision Order (conditions) n/a 14 42 46 40 26

1 These statistics are compiled on the basis of hearing outcomes, where a result is either approved, declined, postponed or revoked. They do not include adjourned, reserved or deferred outcomes.

 2 Prior to the Parole Amendment Act 2007 coming in to force on 1 October 2007, home detention was an alternative to imprisonment for eligible offenders.  After 1 October 2007 home detention is a sentence in its own right ordered by the Court, and the Board no longer plays a role in granting home detention.

3 Includes reviews of orders made under section 105 of the Criminal Justice Act 1985.

 

Home Detention

Effective 1 October 2007 home detention is a sentence in its own right ordered by the Court, the Board no longer plays a role in granting home detention.

Front-end (in custody) 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08  2008/09
Approved 1219 919 717 763 403  n/a
Declined 1472 1203 977 985 552  n/a
TOTAL 2691 2122 1694 1748 955  n/a
Front-end (deferred)            
Approved 403 326 229 289 117  n/a
Declined 142 120 97 88 34  n/a
TOTAL 545 446 326 377 151  n/a
Back-end (pre-PED)            
Approved 289 280 372 476 278  n/a
Declined 441 629 706 903 456  n/a
TOTAL 730 909 1078 1379 734  n/a

 

Parole

  2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08
Approved 895 707 818 906 1125 1252
Declined 947 1025 1766 2390 2846 3009
Total 1842 1732 2584 3296 3971 4261

Figures by case type

The following links will take you to Board statistics by case type:

Parole including Early Referrals and back-end (pre-parole) home detention
Front-end home detention (for offenders serving short-term prison sentences)
Release on conditions (non-discretionary releases)
Recalls
Section 107 applications and reviews
Post-release applications (variations to release conditions and compliance monitoring)
Compassionate Releases
Extended Supervision Orders – application for special conditions

Other statistics

The following links will take you to:

Volume of victims’ submissions
Number of Board decisions reviewed under section 67

Last Updated: March 2009