ABSTRACT
Australia has a complicated history with wrongful convictions, which, while rare, have informed many reforms in the criminal justice system around the country. From the evolving use of forensic evidence to the changing nature of police interviews, many of these reforms have aimed to limit both miscarriages of justice and the harm inflicted on the innocent. Unlike other sections of the criminal justice system, corrective services have been mostly protected from calls for reform when error occurs. However, the increasing politicisation of elements of corrective services, particularly in relation to parole, has exposed the role of political interventions in the continued harm of wrongful conviction. In Australia, this is evident in the enthusiasm for ‘no body, no parole’ laws despite arguments that the laws are unnecessary and of limited application. The clamour to politicise parole represents a trend in Australia, where a sweep of policy recommendations and recent reforms represent a model of ‘parole populism’ that strips prisoners and parolees of significant rights, and, in turn, extends the harms of wrongful conviction on those who are innocent.
