Parole Authority boss defends process The State Parole Authority has defended the process by which it decides whether or not dangerous criminals should be released on parole, disputing claims that some dangerous offenders are released after just a few minutes consideration. The SPA was responding to comments made by its former member, Noel Beddoe, who told Fairfax Media that in his experience "safety of the community wasn't always uppermost" in the parole process. Mr Beddoe said that after "a minute's deliberation" at private meetings, authority members would make initial decisions on whether prisoners should be given parole, with more complex cases given "five minutes at most." He also said that the majority of inmate rehabilitation programs had never been evaluated, despite the need to do so, and that when he had he raised this issue he was rebuffed. But in a written statement released on Saturday, the Chairman of the SPA, Ian Pike, said parole considerations for offenders took many months and often years. "Claims aired in a Sydney newspaper today were a limited snapshot of a single moment during a long and complex procedural process which involved the careful considerations of many expert individuals," Mr Pike said. When offenders become due for parole consideration, according to their court-imposed non-parole periods at sentencing, Authority members first receive carefully prepared, comprehensive reports from Corrective Services NSW' Community Corrections Division. In the case of serious offenders, reports are also received from the Serious Offenders Review Council. He said that once these reports - which covered things such as an offender's psychological state and support outside prison - were read, the authority "formed an intention" to release or not to release at a private meeting. "Should an intention to grant parole be formed at the initial meeting, a public review hearing is then scheduled to thoroughly test the original intention to grant parole," he said. This hearing gives the State, the Corrective Services NSW Commissioner and victims the opportunity to make submissions. Mr Beddoe told Fairfax Media he stood by his criticisms of the process.