Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime

CRCVC works with victim's mother who says prison wardens shouldn't be allowed to bypass the normal parole system.

By KATHLEEN HARRIS, SUN MEDIA NATIONAL BUREAU

December 17, 2007

OTTAWA -- The mother of a teenage youth who was brutally beaten to death with a baseball bat is outraged the killer has bypassed the parole system and won a day-pass program from the prison's warden.

Rosalie Turcotte was shocked to receive a call from the Correctional Service of Canada this week advising her Zachary Finley was granted a temporary absence program for "personal development."

Now an inmate at the Montee Saint-Francois Institution in Laval, Que., Finley has withdrawn his application to go before the National Parole Board 11 times and is now scheduled for a hearing in 2009.

"The reason he obviously did that is because he's starting a program of release into the community instead of going to the National Parole Board where he's probably not going to succeed," Turcotte said in an interview from her British Columbia home.

"The warden makes the decision without any public scrutiny or accountability. This is a back-door way of Corrections starting to release them into the community without having any scrutiny of the decision."

Heidi Illingworth, executive director of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, has written letters of protest to the prison warden and the federal victims' ombudsman expressing "grave concerns" with the temporary absence policy.

She is urging the federal government to withdraw such authority from wardens. "It is contradictory to public safety that an institutional head can allow an escorted temporary absence to a lifer who has never faced the thorough questioning of the National Parole Board or who might never be granted full parole into the community by the board."

She said such decisions should rest solely with the parole board.

Illingworth noted that Finley, who was charged with first-degree murder and convicted of second-degree murder in the 1991 death of Ken Turcotte, has a "deplorable" and violent record behind bars.

Last year, Correctional Service of Canada granted 566 escorted absences and 21 unescorted absences to "lifers," who can get day passes within three years of their parole eligibility date.

Spokesperson Guy Campeau said in each case a risk assessment determines whether the inmate requires an escort, and whether the escort should be an armed or unarmed officer, or a community volunteer.

"The warden will determine what steps need to be taken to ensure public safety," he said.