Earlier this year, SL5's Yasmin Karabasic was overjoyed to receive a Parole Board decision directing the release of one of her IPP clients who has never been released. He served six years over his tariff and was sentenced age 17.
Throughout this case, a lot of Yasmin's work was about supporting her client through various challenges, such as a return to closed conditions, unproven allegations and an unnecessary administrative transfer ten weeks before his hearing date.
It also involved a lot of time maintaining hope and motivation for him through a lengthy wait of over a year for a parole hearing date.
The inordinate delays within the Parole Board, both at paper review and oral hearing stage, are notorious amongst prisoners and prison lawyers at present. The significant effects of these delays are only exacerbated when the client is serving an IPP sentence, one that has recently been determined as a risk factor for suicide and self harm by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.
The client gave an excellent account of himself at the hearing and the Parole Board panel was incredibly fair and balanced in dealing with the issues in his case. The case was also assisted by the instruction of an excellent independent psychologist.
Yasmin has worked with this client for a long time and is so pleased that he is finally home. He provided this feedback:
"Yasmin provided an excellent, outstanding service. She was very informative and helped me every step of the way. She was easy to communicate with and understood the importance of her role, quickly adapted to changing circumstances and always kept me informed and tried to see us come out on top. Two paroles, one open conditions success, one full release success. Thank you, Yas."