Howard House B.C. gets scrutiny of inquiry board

Community Action, Sept 20, 2004

OTTAWA -- The murder charges against an offender housed in the Howard House in Vernon B.C. has brought a decision to close down the half-way house and the establishment of a special inquiry.

The Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board has appointed the membership and set the terms of reference for a Board of Investigation into the release and supervision of Eric Fish, an offender on day parole at the Vernon house. This is the third time that a resident of the facility has been charged with murder in the past 10 years.

The three-member Board of Investigation will be chaired by Gillian Wallace, retired Deputy Attorney General for British Columbia. Other members include Don Tully, Director of Policy, Planning and Operations of the National Parole Board in Ottawa and Mike Johnston, a permanent investigator with the Incident Investigations Branch of the Correctional Service of Canada in Ottawa.

The Board will review all the circumstances into the release of the offender, determine if there were any pre-indicators, assess the programming and case preparation leading up to parole decisions, examine all parole decisions and the reasons behind the decisions, the quality of information on which the decisions were based as well as the quality of supervision while the offender was in the community. The Board is required to submit a final report by October 29, 2004. 613-954-5331