Child rights advocate Sheelagh Cooper has called on Government to implement measures adopted in other jurisdictions for violent or dangerous offenders participating in Work Release or Community Service programmes.The best way forward she said will be to take the selection process out of the hands of prison administrators after Public Safety Minister Michael Dunkley admitted “there is a fault in the system”.The Minister was responding to the public outrage following the release of convicted child rapist Tewolde Mathin Selassie who was assigned to work near the home of his victim’s mother.Said Ms Cooper: “The Minister’s comment is an accurate depiction of the problem, that there are systemic problems that need to be sorted out; just how that will be sorted out remains the question.“If Bermuda were to require Parole Board approval for supervised or unsupervised day release for violent offenders that would go a very long way to improving the prospects for all parties concerned.“It would also have the advantage of taking the onus off the correctional administrators to make such potentially unpopular and highly controversial decisions.“Mr Dunkley has indicated to me that Selassie was supervised but that does not change the point, and I am still not entirely sure this was the case.”In other jurisdictions Day Release release is granted in two forms, there is supervised Day Release which is used as a gradual form of integration back into society and Day Parole.“It is also a way to assess the inmate’s capacity to function without posing a danger to the community,” said Ms Cooper.“The institution has the authority to grant permission for this type of release, and this generally works well in Bermuda as in most other places.”“But the difference between Bermuda and elsewhere is that elsewhere when an inmate is given medium or long term, unsupervised Day Release it is refered to as Day Parole and it requires the Parole Board’s permission.“The institution must seek that permission before allowing a potentially dangerous inmate out the door without supervision.“I am not sure how this practice evolved in Bermuda but it flies in the face of sound correctional practice in most jurisdictions,” said Ms Cooper.“The Parole Board is charged with the responsibility of looking after the public interest and it ought to be part of this decision making process.“If Selassie had applied to the board for permission he may indeed have been successful.“But at least considerable thought and the extensive expertise would have provided not only a risk assessment, it also would have given thought to the potential impact of his release upon the victim.“There would be significant conditions attached to his conduct and whereabouts throughout the release making the whole endeavour better.”She was adamant that “considerable research supports the value of this kind of pre-release experience as public safety remains the paramount concern”.A Government spokesman said: “The Ministry is open to considering best practice in other jurisdictions.”On a related note she welcomed word that the Attorney General will review the legislation that allows for parole after one third of a sentence has been served.“But my bigger concern is the policy that provides for automatic release of dangerous offenders without any supervision,” said Ms Cooper.“A significant portion of the most dangerous prisoners refuse to engage in any therapeutic programmes and wait out their time to walk out of prison no better off than they went in, and in some cases they avoid any parole supervision whatsoever.“In Canada dangerous offenders released after two thirds of their sentence have Mandatory Parole and they are supervised until their full sentence expires. Extremely dangerous offenders can also be put on parole for life.”She concluded: “We have got to strike a sensible balance between protecting the community and offering opportunities for restoration, healing and hope and this applies to all of us which ever side of the prison walls we find ourselves on.”