This Sentence Is False

Everyone in the criminal justice system knows that when a judge hands down a provincial jail or federal penetentiary sentence, the person sentenced will almost never serve it all.

Prisoners serving intermittent sentences will be told to go home if there's no room in the provincial jail that weekend. Those in custody before sentencing can get the benefit of "two-for-one" counting of days towards their sentence; temporary absences after one-sixth of the sentence, parole eligibility after one-third and mandatory release after two-thirds (the mandatory supervision release) all ensure that truth in sentencing doesn't exist.

But we can't blame the judges for this state of affairs; once they pass sentence, everything is in the hands of the corrections system and the National Parole Board.

And an accomplished liar can snow the Parole Board every time.

Like Wayne Kellestine:

During his 40-year criminal career, Wayne Kellestine, the outlaw biker now accused in the worst mass murder in Ontario history, frequently won early release from jails, prisons and halfway houses by telling officials he would quit all the vices that kept landing him in trouble, his parole records show.

Mr. Kellestine's long history encompasses drugs, assault and a charge of attempted murder that was dropped after the man he allegedly shot decided not to testify against him.

At court and parole hearings, he routinely insisted he would kick his associations with guns, drugs and outlaw bikers. Often -- but not always -- he was taken at his word, even when police officers cautioned that he should not be taken at face value.

"The local police are opposed to your release due to your ties to organized crime," the National Parole Board pointed out the last time Mr. Kellestine left prison, in 2003.

Still, after completing two-thirds of four years from his 2002 conviction for possessing assorted firearms, some of them prohibited weapons, Mr. Kellestine was allowed to return to his southwestern Ontario farm without spending the remaining months of his sentence in a halfway house.

He was ordered to stay away from outlaw bikers.

But don't just take Kellestine as an example of the Parole Board's failure.

See what they have to say about what it claims really goes on with parole,and the decision-making process.

You'll understand how Kellestine could take them in, time and again.

Source: Globe and Mail