Another unexplained clerical error helps B.C. gangster Jarrod Bacon
First he was wrongly released from prison, then authorities failed to tell the public about his release status
A technical glitch that prevented the public from learning Jarrod Bacon had been released from prison months ago is the second Parole Board of Canada clerical error related to the notorious B.C. gangster.
On Thursday, the Parole Board of Canada released a five-month-old decision showing Bacon was granted statutory release back in June. Normally, such documents are disclosed to journalists with standing applications and people on a victims' list within days of the decision.
The delay means Bacon's release to an undisclosed halfway house went largely unnoticed and unreported.
Last year, Bacon was mistakenly released from prison 16 months early because of a typo that recorded the length of his sentence as seven years instead of nine. The blunder went unnoticed and led to a flawed calculation for his statutory release date.
"You would have thought that there would have been extra special caution exercised over this individual because of his status, his involvement and his continuing activities," said SFU criminology professor Rob Gordon. "Obviously that didn't happen."
Bacon is a past member of the Bacon Brothers and Red Scorpions gang and has been associated with members of the Hells Angels.
Younger brother Jamie Bacon was charged in the 2007 Surrey Six slayings, which left six dead in a Surrey highrise. Eldest brother Jonathan Bacon was killed in a targeted shooting in 2011.
Parole Board of Canada spokesman Françios Tardif said a "technical glitch" prevented the timely release of the June 2018 Bacon decision.
"You have to understand that this situation is exceptional and rest assured that the board is accustomed to giving access to a decision in a very short time," said Tardif.
Questions sent to the Parole Board of Canada's head office in Ottawa were not responded to.
Cocaine smuggler and gangster
In 2012, Bacon was sentenced for trying to smuggle 100 kilograms of cocaine into B.C.
He was erroneously granted statutory release in February of 2017 due to the typo, but was returned to prison five months later after being intercepted at a strip club known to be frequented by members of organized crime.
The rearrest led to the voiding of his statutory release, however Bacon and his lawyer successfully argued that because he shouldn't have been out of prison in the first place, it wasn't within the Parole Board of Canada's authority to revoke his release.
The latest parole board decision says that Bacon is a high public safety risk.
"Due to your ongoing involvement with a criminal gang, the potential for significant violence remains a very present issue."
According to the documents, Bacon was placed in segregation and then transferred to a maximum security facility after he and an accomplice targeted three different inmates in a series of violent assaults in early 2018.