Parole board decisions questionable

Editor:

I realize that parole boards have a very tough job. I realize that they are normally selected by Provincial Solicitor Generals and Ministers of Justice for 3 to 5 years of part or full time work.

Also that they fall under the provisions of the Correctional Service.

 I understand that board members must have a degree in Sociology and, or Criminology. That they only receive 14 days of training  causes me a great deal of concern!.  How the man still at large in Saskatchewan after 10 people were murdered and 18 injured, was able to be parolled is beyond my comprehension! 

How, in God’s name, could a man with 59 previous convictions, including 2 previous stabbings, assaults, including a police officer, and many release orders not kept be released out into the general public? He even had a record of ignoring prison rules while in custody!

How could he have been previously transferred to a lower security jail and even a Healing Lodge?  Was there some pressure on the parole board members to release him because our jails are terribly overloaded ?

If he was released to save the estimated cost of keeping him there was about $100,000 per year, wait until the bill for investigating the massacre rings in for several million dollars! Worse yet, the pain and suffering of his victims is well beyond comprehension!

A real judicial system would have seen this murderer locked up permentently as a habitual criminal. As a retired police officer, my heart goes out to the men and women in blue who have to unnecessarily endure the brunt of this travesty that should never have taken place to start with!

Dale Ferrel

Leduc, Alberta

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