(file image) Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
The Parole Board chair says incorrect information from Corrections prevented a convicted rapist, who murdered his neighbour while on parole, from being placed in a rehabilitation centre.
Joseph Brider stabbed Juliana Bonilla-Herrera to death as she slept in her bed in Christchurch last January - just nine weeks after he was paroled from prison.
He was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum non-parole period of 23 years and preventative detention for the murder in the High Court this week.
On Thrusday, Parole Board chair Sir Ron Young had told RNZ the board was unable to release Brider to the Salisbury Street Foundation centre - which they believed was a "better release" option - because information provided by Corrections during the hearing showed they had no room available.
The Salisbury Street Foundation provides residential oversight of men in the early stages of release from prison and can detect when they are slipping back into old habits.
But in a statement on Friday, Sir Ron said: "I now believe the information provided to the Board by Corrections that there was no room available at the Salisbury Street Foundation for a release on parole was not correct.
"The Salisbury Street Foundation have since told the Board that they had a bed available for Brider if he had been released in June and would have still made a room available for him following the October parole hearing."
The Parole Board claimed Corrections withdrew the application to the foundation without its authority.
Sir Ron said the board only found out about the withdrawn referral two days ago.
"At about the time of the sentencing, we sent, as a matter of courtesy, a copy of the Parole Board's report to Salisbury Street Foundation ... By coincidence, a representative there said to us that they thought Brider had been offered a place there."
It took about 24 hours to track down the relevant information, Sir Ron said.
"The best I can understand is that they thought Brider might not be able to finish the programme in the time he had left on parole. But there were two problems with that. Firstly, it's not their decision to make whether he goes to Salisbury Street Foundation, it's the Parole Board's," he said.
"Secondly, in any event, Salisbury Street don't necessarily have an end time or a completion date. They have a system that's really individual, focusing on the individual offender.
"But what we do know is if Brider had gone there, he would have been very closely monitored for the first few months, he's unlikely to have even be able to go out into the community on his own. A completely different release proposal to the one he ended up with."
Brider ended up being put in a former prisoner's unit next door to Bonilla-Herrera's flat.
Corrections says it takes allegation seriously
But Corrections said it was yet to substantiate whether the Parole Board's claim was correct.
Chief executive Jeremy Lightfoot had ordered an independent review into the claim.
Corrections provided RNZ with the statement given in its Parole Assessment Report ahead of Brider's October parole hearing.
"Whilst his release to the Salisbury Street Foundation (SSF) has previously been advised to the Parole Board, in preparation of his October 2021 appearance, an alternative release proposal has been required to be pursued with [withheld due to suppression orders]; continuing his engagement with the [suppression] into the community and their accommodation service.
"This alternative release proposal has been pursued as Corrections were advised by SSF that the service could not guarantee a bed will be available for Brider at his release or end date, alongside concerns raised around an insufficient time remaining on his sentence to fully engage in SSF's intensive programme."
Lightfoot believed it was made clear there was uncertainty over Brider's SSF bed.
"I take any allegation raising concerns about information we provide to the New Zealand Parole Board extremely seriously ... I am determined to understand exactly what has occurred here so Juliana's family have the clarity they so rightly deserve," he said.
He apologised for any distress it had caused to Herrera-Bonilla's family during "what had already been a difficult and traumatic week."
"I also expect this review to identify any changes that can be made to further strengthen information sharing between Corrections and the Parole Board," Lightfoot said.
No definitive timeframe had been determined yet for the independent review, but it would begin as soon as possible, Corrections said.
National Party calls for explanation
The National Party were calling for the Corrections Minister to explain how the potentially incorrect advice given to the Parole Board may have contributed to Bonilla-Herrera's death.
"A young woman visiting our country was killed because the system failed her," National Party Corrections spokesperson Mark Mitchell said.
"Kelvin Davis needs to front up to New Zealanders and explain how this happened and what he, as Minister for Corrections, is doing to address the obvious shortcomings and what actions are being taken to ensure this doesn't happen again," Mitchell said.
"We need more tools to deal with offenders approaching the end of their sentence who are assessed as being at a high risk of re-offending, to ensure public safety is the paramount consideration when deciding when offenders should be released back into communities," he said.
"This was an avoidable and tragic death of a young woman and is another failure by a Labour Government that is soft on crime
"National has been clear that we want to put victims and public safety back at the centre of our criminal justice system."
RNZ has approached Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis for comment.