What struck me in reading his response is that how you see the process depends very much on how you experience it. Mr. Crowley writes from the standpoint of someone who is a part of the system. I wrote from the standpoint of prisoners, who have very little ability to influence what happens to them and quickly learn that efforts to exert agency are often badly received. In just the same way, the health system looks very different to doctors than it does to patients, just as people who serve customers often have a very different view of quality of service than do the customers!
Every aspect of parole — and prison generally — is very different for those who know how it works, who make or enforce the rules, compared with prisoners, who aren’t even told what the rules are, let alone having any role in making them. Prison is a place, as described in several of my previous columns, where the rules, whether on food, visits, behaviour, mail, work or anything else, are observed or enforced arbitrarily at the discretion of individual staff members while prisoners have virtually no recourse. That is also true for parole, at least during my time. The official version of how it works is not what actually happens much of the time.
When I was there, prisoners had no official information about parole, only what they were told by their parole officers (POs) — not always accurate — or what they were told by other prisoners. Different POs told prisoners very different things, including things that were incorrect. Mr. Crowley says that prisoners delay parole for various reasons, which is no doubt true. I know that virtually all the prisoners I knew — dozens of them — had delays created by their parole officers even though the prisoners eventually “signed off” on them because they essentially had no choice. Parole board members believe what they are told by Correctional Service Canada staff; prisoners know they cannot trust what they are told.
I appreciate Mr. Crowley’s dedication to this work. It’s important work and I have no doubt he did it conscientiously. Perhaps if the parole board surveyed former parolees, they would have a more balanced picture of how parole is experienced by prisoners that would complement the view from above.
David Dorson is the pen name of someone who went through arrest, case disposition, imprisonment and parole in Ontario a few years ago. Law360 Canada has granted him anonymity because he offers a unique perspective on a subject that matters deeply to many readers, and revealing the author’s identity would make re-establishment in the community after serving his sentence much more difficult than it already is.
The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s firm, its clients, Law360 Canada, LexisNexis Canada or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.
Interested in writing for us? To learn more about how you can add your voice to Law360 Canada, contact Analysis Editor Peter Carter at peter.carter@lexisnexis.ca or call 647-776-6740.