Parole for children and young people

What happens after release?

If you are released on a licence, you will have a youth offending team officer or probation officer. On release, you will be given a copy of your licence to read and you will need to check carefully to see what conditions are there. You have to do what they tell you to or you could be recalled and brought back to prison.

You can be recalled if, for example:

• You commit another crime or are charged with another crime or are arrested for a crime; or
• You are behaving in a way that leads your YOT officer to think you might be about to commit another crime. For example, if you start drinking heavily and you often get violent when you are drunk; or
• You break the conditions of your licence.

All decisions to recall people from licence are taken by a Government department known as the Post Release Section. If this happens to you, you will be arrested by the police and will be sent back to prison. You may not be sent back to the same type of prison. If you served your sentence in a Secure Training Centre or a local authority childrens home it does not mean you will go back to the same place if you are recalled you could be sent to a Young Offenders Institution.

After a few days, Post Release Section will write to you and explain why you have been recalled. A bundle of papers called the recall pack or recall dossier, including a report from the Probation Service, will be given to you to read. You then have to decide if you want to challenge this decision and you should ask your solicitor to help you. If you decide to challenge the recall this is called making representations against recall.

Once you have decided whether or not to make representations, your case will go before the Parole Board, which will see all the papers in the recall pack, together with any representations you may have made.

What happens if I am going to be deported?

If you have been told that you will be deported at the end of your time in custody, you should immediately get advice from an immigration solicitor (which may be free under the legal aid scheme). You could be released in the same way as everyone else, although it is possible that you will be held in custody by the Immigration Service, while they make arrangements for you to be deported.

Once you are released, you will be handed over to an Immigration Officer who will take you to a port or airport for you to be sent back to your own country.

What if something happens between getting my parole and actually being released?

If you do something wrong, the Parole Board or the Post Release Section can cancel your parole until a fresh panel has looked at your case again. This will mean a delay in releasing you, and may mean the Parole Board decides you cannot now be released. Your case will be reconsidered as if you did not get parole.

Can I change the conditions on my licence?

If something changes when you are on parole, your YOT worker can apply to get one or more of your conditions changed or cancelled.

What if I do not get parole?

If you do not get parole (often called a knockback) you can ask your solicitor to read the reasons carefully to see if there is anything you want to challenge. You cannot get the decision changed just because you disagree with it, but in some cases the Parole Board can be made to re-consider its decision.

There are two ways to challenge a decision of the Parole Board.

1. You, or your solicitor, can write to the Parole Board explaining why you think the decision or the reasons for it are wrong. The Parole Board can reconsider its decision if information it should have had at the time was not in the dossier; or where the correct procedures were not followed; or if the reasons are not good enough. The Parole Board will not reconsider just because you do not agree with the decision.
2. Your solicitor can apply for a judicial review of the Parole Boards decision. This means putting the decision before the courts to see if the Parole Board has done something wrong. The courts will not take a different decision, but can make the Parole Board to consider your case again.

Recall

If you are recalled, the Parole Board has to go through a similar process to when it originally allowed you out on parole. For people who are serving the extended sentence and are recalled, there will only be an oral hearing if re-release has been refused once the Board has read your papers and if the Parole Board agrees there should be an oral hearing.

For people who are serving the other three types of sentence, there will usually be an oral hearing anyway. When the Parole Board is looking at a recall, it must decide one of
four things. It will either:

• Order your immediate release back onto licence; or
• Refuse immediate release but order your release at a future date; or
• Refuse immediate release and set a date to review your case again; or
• Refuse to release or review your case again. This can happen where there are less than 12 months to go on your sentence and you will serve what is left of the sentence in prison (this will only apply to the extended sentence).

Whatever the Parole Board decides, you will get the decision with full reasons for it. If the decision has been made without an oral hearing, you can then decide to either:

• Accept it; or, if you have made representations;
• Ask for a hearing in person (with legal representation if you wish) at which you can give evidence and call witnesses. This is called an oral hearing. You will be expected to say what you hope to argue at the hearing and why an oral hearing is necessary. An oral hearing will not be granted just because you want one. At the oral hearing, the Parole Board will make one of the four decisions above.

If the Parole Board decides there should be an oral hearing, it will be the same as an oral hearing for an ordinary parole application.

The Parole Board for England and Wales

Grenadier House, 99-105 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2DX

Telephone 0845 251 2220