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Safety fears over public sector cuts

Safety fears over public sector cuts

EXCLUSIVE: There are fears more than 400 of the state's worst criminals will be left to roam the streets without supervision under new cuts being planned by the State Government.

The security group in charge of tracking potential re-offenders will operate only during office hours, leaving the community potentially exposed.

The group tracks the most dangerous criminals out on parole.

Howard Brown from the Victims of Crime Action League says they are the worst of the worst.

“We're talking about murderers, serial rapists and paedophiles," Brown said.

The parolees are supervised by random out of hours visits by the Community Compliance and Monitoring Group, which can demand breath and urine tests.

They can impose night-time curfews, and track phones, but that's now at risk.

Documents obtained by Seven News confirm the Corrective Services Department's budget has been slashed, with an expenditure freeze for the security and intelligence division.

To save money, the department will merge with the parole service which works Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Opposition Leader John Robertson says that what Barry O'Farrell is doing, by cutting this budget, is compromising community safety.

Criminals will be monitored during office hours, but after 5 o'clock the critical surveillance will shut down, triggering fears the community will be exposed.

The group tracks 400 high risk offenders including notorious paedophile and killer John Lewthwaite, Bulli rapist Terry John Williamson, and high profile sex offender Kenneth Tillman.

The future of the 200-strong unit will be discussed tomorrow when Corrective Services chiefs meet with the new prisons boss to figure out how these notorious criminals will be monitored.

"These are people who are going to exploit the system anyway they can, and to me it's very dangerous that they should take this course of action," Howard Brown from the Victims of Crime Action League says.