Halfway houses are being urged for sex offenders and inmates freed from long prison terms.
Parole Board chairman Judge David Carruthers said such houses would provide a safer way to test prisoners in the community, the Dominion Post reported.
It would especially benefit paedophiles and others whose families had shunned them, Judge Carruthers said.
The board had long faced problems in finding safe places for long-serving prisoners to live.
Getting support and somewhere safe to go was "critical" before the board freed a prisoner on parole, he said.
Some offenders who served long prison sentences had lost contact with family and outside support.
"Sometimes they've burned off the support because of the terrible things they've done."
Judge Carruthers said halfway houses were a success story in the Canadian prison system.
Research there had shown those paroled to halfway houses were two to three times less likely to reoffend than other parolees, and five times less likely to reoffend than those not paroled at all.
Community Probation acting general manager Astrid Kalders said the Corrections Department was still looking at reintegration schemes, including halfway houses, and experience suggested it would be a significant undertaking to try and establish such houses in New Zealand.
