Convicted bank robber and celebrated writer Stephen Reid was granted day parole Thursday at a hearing at William Head Institution in Metchosin.
Reid, 63, had last year been granted a 60-day stint on day parole to attend substance-abuse treatment.
The board reviewed Reid’s progress in custody and granted him six months leave from custody on day parole, which will be extended if he does well, said Patrick Storey, spokesman for the Parole Board of Canada.
The location of the halfway house cannot be disclosed due to privacy laws, Storey said.
Rules of day parole include residents having to sign out in the morning, sign in as they return for the night and report where they’re going through the day.
Reid will also have to report to a parole officer and take part in whatever programs or counselling that is ordered.
In four months, the parole officer will report to the board on Reid’s performance in the community, Storey said.
“If he’s doing well, he’ll no doubt continue his day parole for another six months,” Storey said.
“If there are concerns, the parole officer can ask for a hearing or directly revoke his day parole.”
Reid is ordered to abstain from consuming alcohol and illicit drugs and avoid anyone he knows or suspects is involved in criminal activity. The board also imposed a special condition where Reid must provide all of his financial records.
“His tenure in the community is completely dependent on his behaviour,” Storey said.
“The parole officer can return him to prison or custody anytime he or she feels it’s necessary to protect the community. If he looks like he’s going to go sideways, the parole officer can suspend him and he goes back into custody.”
Reid has spent much of his adult life writing and under the eye of the corrections system.
He was a member of The Stopwatch Gang that, in the 1970s, robbed about 100 banks, hauling in $15 million. The heists did not always go as planned — Reid was convicted twice of bank robbery, serving time in many prisons in Canada and the U.S.
He began writing in 1984 while incarcerated at Kent Institution in Aggasiz, and it was there in 1986 that he married writer Susan Musgrave.
Reid wrote the novel Jack Rabbit Parole, drawing the story from his criminal background. In October 2013, Reid won the annual Victoria Book Prize for his book A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden, which the jurors described as “a prison ethnography taut with wit and humanity.”
Reid’s release pertains to an 18-year sentence for the June 1999 robbery of a Cook Street bank and attempted murder of a Victoria police officer.
Reid was granted day parole in January 2008 but that was revoked in November 2010, when the vehicle he was driving was stopped by police. Inside were 3,600 contraband American cigarettes.
Reid has struggled with addictions to prescription drugs and heroin.
