Red Scorpions member let out on statutory release last year due to mistake in files

Jarrod Bacon is show here in a 2009 court appearance in Surrey. (Black Press file photo)

Former Red Scorpions gangster Jarrod Bacon was released from prison 16 months earlier than he should have been last year due to a mistake in his files, according to Parole Board of Canada documents.

The documents, which detail a parole board decision that Bacon appealed, indicate that Bacon left a Quebec prison on statutory release on Feb. 11, 2017, but should not be released until June 14 of this year.

That’s because his file indicated he was serving a sentence of seven years and two months rather than nine years and two months, according to the documents.

Offenders must be released from prison after serving two-thirds of their sentence.

Bacon was sentenced in 2012 for conspiracy to traffic cocaine in Abbotsford. He received a 12-year jail term, but that was increased to 14 years on appeal by the Crown.

His statutory release date has come up so soon due to his receiving double credit for time already served prior to sentencing.

After his initial release in February 2017, Bacon was ordered by the Parole Board of Canada to reside at a halfway house.

But the board suspended his release on July 10 and sent him back to prison, saying Bacon had breached special conditions of his release and presented an “undue risk to society.”

These conditions included that he not be in a drinking establishment and not communicate with “criminalized individuals.”

Police officers located Bacon in a strip club. Among his companions was a man who was “well known by the Correctional Service of Canada,” according to parole board documents.

Bacon then appealed the revocation – formally issued on Sept. 14, 2017 – saying he was initially released too early and, therefore, the parole board “had no jurisdiction to render a decision” on the matter, according to board documents.

The appeal division agreed that a mistake had been made and on Feb. 21 of this year cancelled the parole board’s decision to revoke Bacon’s statutory release.

At the time of his 2009 arrest, Bacon was living in Abbotsford and was part of the notorious Bacon brothers, who were running the Red Scorpions gang.

Jonathan Bacon was killed in a targeted shooting in Kelowna in August 2011, and brother Jamie is currently in prison awaiting trial on a murder conspiracy charge.