they have served one third of the sentence imposed by the court.  When someone is sentenced to 12 years, nobody knows whether they will serve all 12, or be out in four,  or  somewhere  in  between.    In  fact,  prisoners  do  serve  an  average  of  62 percent of the sentence imposed by the court.  But the fact that they are eligible to be released much earlier is a source of frustration and anger amongst victims and other members of the community, and has been so for many years.  We need to move to a system where the sentence imposed by the judge in court means what it says.    It is important to note that these problems with the sentencing and parole systems have existed in New Zealand for a very long time.  They were not affected by the reforms  brought  about  by  the  Sentencing  and  Parole  Acts  2002.    What  we  are proposing builds on the changes made in that legislation.    So how do we propose to fix the problems with the current system?    Turning first to parole, we recommend that parole should be retained.  This is so, despite what I have just said about the importance of “truth in sentencing”.  With parole,  decisions  can  be  made  about  when  and  how  to  release  prisoners  to minimise  their  risk  of  reoffending.    Retaining  parole  is  simply  common  sense, because every prisoner must eventually be released. However, we are recommending substantial changes to parole that will promote “truth in sentencing” in two ways.    First, prisoners should not be eligible for parole until they have served two thirds of their sentence.  When a criminal is sentenced, he or she will spend most of the sentence term behind bars.  Prisoners sentenced to short terms of 12 months or less should serve their whole sentence.  It may be appropriate for very dangerous prisoners to do so as well, but that will be a matter for the Parole Board. Secondly, judges imposing sentence should always spell out both the full term of the sentence and the parole component, so that everyone – victims, the media and the general public - know exactly what the sentence means.  For example, a judge imposing a six year sentence should spell out that the full term is six years and C:\Documents and Settings\TMcGlennon\Desktop\SG&PR\EI Launch GP Speech.doc