Judith Collins. Pic: NZPA

Wellington, June 12 NZPA - Prisoner release teams aimed at helping prisoners reintegrate into society were launched today following condemnation of the parole process by the Auditor-General.

Parole provisions shot into the headlines after Graeme Burton murdered Karl Kuchenbecker in the Lower Hutt hills on January 2007.

Burton should have been recalled to jail prior to the killings, for parole breaches.

The teams will improve the safety of parole and make the process more robust, Corrections Minister Judith Collins said at the launch in Manurewa, South Auckland, today.

The initiative was announced in April to help address concerns raised in a report by the Auditor-General about probation staff not following processes in the management of high-risk prisoners.

The report looked at 100 parole cases, including 52 high risk offenders, and found that in most cases correct procedures were not followed.

Staff did not even carry out some of the special provisions brought in after Burton murdered Mr Kuchenbecke.

The new teams will give dedicated staff the role of managing home detention, community work, parolees, other offenders released from prison and high-risk child sex offenders on extended supervision orders, Ms Collins said.

That would allow them to gain a depth of experience in safely managing prisoners on parole, she said.

The teams will also provide information for Parole Board reports.

Ms Collins refused to express confidence in corrections chief executive Barry Matthews after the Auditor-General's report and a follow-up report by the State Services Commission into accountability.

That report found Mr Matthews was accountable for his department but sacking him would not be justified.

Today, Mr Matthews said staff on the new teams would be specially trained to manage "all activities, sentences and orders relating to offenders who are released from prison".

He said they would comment "solely on the needs of those offenders".

"Offenders who are released from prison present special challenges to probation officers and require a more intensive management approach than offenders serving a sentence wholly in the community.

"These teams will improve the standard of management and boost the level of knowledge about the operational requirements for this group of offenders and ensure they are better held to account when they do not comply with the requirements of their sentences."

The way a probation officer's work was organised was also being changed, Mr Matthews said.

He said there would be a move away from probation officers managing all sentence types.

Further initiatives were also planned, he said.