Victorian authorities were warned of major flaws in the state's parole system 12 months before parolee Adrian Ernest Bayley murdered Jill Meagher.
A comprehensive report highlighted significant shortcomings in the system, including the case of a double murderer who was assessed as a low risk of reoffending but committed another murder.
It found probationary psychologists were carrying out assessments on high-risk people and the wrong priority was being assigned to offenders.
The report also found breaches of parole were not immediately reported to the Adult Parole Board by corrections staff.
The September 2011 report, by psychologist and lawyer Professor James Ogloff, was made public on Thursday after lawyers for the media fought for its release.
The report, which was released heavily blacked out, examined the cases of nine parolees who committed, or were alleged to have committed, murder.
"Generally, the frequency, nature and extent of supervision did not vary according to the assigned level of risk," the report said.
"A system should be developed to more carefully prioritise cases to ensure there is a greater oversight of higher risk cases.
"A number of shortcomings, some significant, were identified through our work."
In one case an offender, who was assessed as having a high risk of reoffending, relapsed into drug use and was discovered by corrections authorities sharing a house with another known parolee.
He was later charged with murder and aggravated burglary.
Prof Ogloff said better information sharing was needed between community corrections officers, the Adult Parole Board and service providers.
He also said there was a need to develop a system that prioritises cases.
"Higher priority cases should receive greater attention, more intensive supervision, more experienced staff, high priority for accessing programs and clinical services by fully qualified and more senior clinicians," Prof Ogloff said.
He also recommended consideration be given to assigning specialist case managers or case management teams to offenders who are complex or pose a high risk of reoffending.
The Victorian government said nine of Prof Ogloff's 10 recommendations have now been acted on, with the final one to be completed within weeks.
Its statement denied the government had delayed the release of the report.
The report's release came two days after another scathing report into Victoria's parole system by former High Court justice Ian Callinan.
Mr Callinan found it was "not easy to understand" why the serial rapist Bayley wasn't jailed after he admitted assaulting a man in Geelong.
He found the parole board had both cause and opportunity to cancel his parole.
Bayley was both on parole and on bail, while he appealed his assault sentence, when he murdered Ms Meagher in September last year.
Mr Callinan also found the board's decisions were tilted in favour of offenders, not victims, and it did not give enough prominence to public safety.
The board says it was not asked or advised to cancel Bayley's parole but acknowledged that it should have done so.
Former parole board chairman Justice Simon Whelan admitted on Thursday that the failure to cancel Bayley's parole was an "explicable" mistake but said the assertion that members of the board don't put community safety first was an insult.
