 The Department of Probation and Parole has concluded a second round of parole hearings since the government of St. Lucia established a parole system in keeping with international practice. The hearings were conducted at the Baudelaire Correctional Facility on December 7 and 9, 2021. Three inmates who are serving life sentences have their cases heard before a seven-member parole board. One director of the probation and parole department, Cuthbert Henry, says the parole system implemented in 2020 has proven essential to the penal rehabilitation process. Recounting the first two parole hearings held December 16, 2020, Mr. Henry says the inmates who were paroled have been doing well. We have parolies who are employed and otherwise engaged in vocational training. It seems to be a very promising branch of our work. The probation and parole department has been working closely with the Correctional Service of Canada, a federal government agency responsible for the incarceration and rehabilitation of convicted criminal offenders sentenced to two years or more. Mr. Henry says the probation and parole department is sensitive to public concerns about the parole in a of inmates, particularly those convicted of capital offences. Concerned similar to that of Terry St. Hill, whose father was murdered, the man convicted of the crime is one of the three inmates who have applied for parole. We know that there is no hanging being done in San Jose anymore. So all it takes is seven-fifteen years in prison and exhibiting the characteristics of a model prisoner. And then you'll be paroled into the system. The assistant director of the probation and parole department has however assured that inmates would find great difficulty in manipulating the system. It is a process that is carefully managed with assessment all along of risk. The primary concern for our department is the risk to the public. So once there is any risk of adverse risk to the public, the process will be directed as such. Parol is not granted to every applicant, every candidate. There is a rigorous process and there would be disappointments for some of the inmates who apply. Likewise, there would be some positive outcomes for some of the inmates. Once an inmate applies for parole, a series of actions are taken, including a review of the criminal history, assessing their risk to criminal activity. An inmate must also undergo an evaluation by a forensic psychologist. Parol is granted in respect to the amount of time. If your sentence is 15 years, and if your sentence perhaps is 20 years, and you're granted parole on the 15th year, you will be on parole for the next five years. If you're a lifer, as in those cases we have had, because they were murder cases, what you find that they will be on parole for life. If during that course of being on parole, they contravene any of the conditions and the parole board takes its time to make very stringent and very detailed conditions. If the British conditions and the parole officer reports that back to the parole board, the parole board has that authority of the High Court in this respect to send them back to the prison for free. The parole board is deliberated on the recent applications made and is expected to render its decision in the coming weeks. From the Government Information Service, Lisa Joseph reporting.