

Life Without Parole: Inside the secretive world of parole boards - sergeant3
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/07/10/life-without-parole

======
rayiner
The whole parole board transparency and discretion angle at the beginning of
the article is a red herring. You have to scroll 2/3 of the way through the
article to get to the real culprit: the "touch on crime" movement in the
1980's and 1990's dramatically reduced the discretion of parole boards. See
this NYT article from 1999: [http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/10/us/eliminating-
parole-boar...](http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/10/us/eliminating-parole-
boards-isn-t-a-cure-all-experts-say.html) ("Fifteen states so far have taken
the politically popular step of abolishing parole boards, a vestige of what
most Americans regard as a failed system of penal rehabilitation, and last
week Gov. George E. Pataki of New York proposed to make his state the 16th.")

Before "sentencing reform" in the 1980's and 1990's, the average prisoner
served about 40% of their sentence. In the 1990's, states eliminated or
greatly limited parole board discretion to release prisoners. For example, in
1988 prisoners in Texas served on average 35% of their sentences:
[http://www.lbb.state.tx.us/Public_Safety_Criminal_Justice/Re...](http://www.lbb.state.tx.us/Public_Safety_Criminal_Justice/Reports/Finalviolent.pdf)
(page 4). In 1998 it was 75%. In Florida in 1991 it was 31%:
[http://www.dc.state.fl.us/secretary/press/2001/timeserved.ht...](http://www.dc.state.fl.us/secretary/press/2001/timeserved.html).
By 2001 it was 83%.

The factors mentioned in the article: lack of transparency, board discretion,
politics, existed just as much in 1988 as in 1998. They can't be the
explanation for why so few prisoners are granted parole. Arguably,
transparency and the elimination of board discretion is the _actual problem_.
When crime peaked in the 1990's, politicians pointed to those 35% and 31%
figures and the ensuing public outrage led to a "war on parole."

~~~
mgkimsal
> The movement to abolish parole began in the late 1970's after academic
> studies suggested that rehabilitative efforts in prison and early release on
> parole for good conduct had no measurable effect on reducing repeat
> offenses.

What's odd is that for all I read about prison (and having had a friend go
through prison), there's basically 0 effort or programs in place at most
prisons to do anything remotely resembling actual "rehabilitation". What
"rehabilitative efforts" were tried that were deemed failures?

~~~
littletimmy
We tried giving them a bible, like in Shawshank Redemption. If the Lord cannot
save them, then how can we?

~~~
mgkimsal
might have had more effect if we'd made sure they could al read first.

------
mizzao
So one case where someone released on parole commits another serious crime
basically condemns thousands or tens of thousands more in prison to never be
released. How do we get around this inability to balance Type I vs Type II
errors? All those false negatives are very expensive - we pay for them with
our taxes.

~~~
stretchwithme
I'm ok with parole for first time offenders. But for relentless offenders, I'm
against it. Parole should gradually go away as an option with the frequency
and severity of one's crimes. And if they start playing by the rules, their
right to parole should gradually return.

The worst relentless offenders shouldn't be living with everybody else when
they get released. They should live in a penal colony of some kind. Or maybe
they should go there instead of prison.

This is especially true for serial sex offenders, who aren't going to be able
to live anywhere but under a bridge and who probably are going to keep
offending. They need to be segregated, but don't necessarily need traditional
imprisonment. One or two convictions does not put an offender into this
category.

Prison is sort of a blunt instrument that we hammer people over the head with.
Then we set them free amongst us and hope they'll be nice. A more normal, but
segregated community might be a better place for some offenders and some
parolees.

~~~
stretchwithme
Not a fan of the light sentences (12 years for murdering 22 people!), but some
things seem to be working about this prison:

ttp://www.businessinsider.com/bastoy-prison-tour-2014-10?op=1

~~~
stretchwithme
[http://www.businessinsider.com/bastoy-prison-
tour-2014-10?op...](http://www.businessinsider.com/bastoy-prison-
tour-2014-10?op=1)

------
NetWarNinja
There is big money in prison systems. I remember a lot of people I knew
getting locked up and going to Rikers. The stories they tell and I knew a lot
of legal aid secretary's who see these cases comes across the desk and I want
to cry. No representation for the poor, they just lock you up and you get
swallowed into the system and if you are lucky enough to see daylight they
throw you back down the hole again. I mean it's horror movie scary how the
prison system and parole boards in New York function. Whatever you do in life
don't ever put yourself into the position of getting thrown in jail.

~~~
x5n1
No one can escape 'Murican justice! It's tough on crime (TM)!

------
imroot
In 1997 Ohio (the state where I'm currently residing) passed Senate Bill 2,
which largely eliminated the parole board, and introduced something called
"Flat Time."

In the past, the judges had a bit of leeway (based on the statue) that they
could set as a minimum time, and then the parole board would release you, on
parole, for a period of one or two years, based on your institutional
behavior. Senate Bill 2 eliminated all of that -- if you were sentenced to two
years, you were going to do every bit of two years. Judges still had the
options of "Shock" parole (boot camp) and "Super Shock" parole (judicial
release), but, even in the mid-to-late 2000's, they got rid of the boot camp
option, and now the only decision that will let you out early is the judge
pulling you out of prison and back to the county for a Judicial
Release...which moves you from the state's probation/parole roster back to
that counties probation roster.

As crime increases, the stressors grow on the probation department, so they
are less likely to release someone via the judicial release framework, so you
see 90-95% of guys do every day of their time. The Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Corrections (and the internal joke there amongst a lot of
the staff joke that they need to drop the word "Rehabilitation" from their
name) has cut funding, and staffing, to most (if not all) of the good prison
programs (When I volunteered at ODRC in the mid to late 90's, you could learn
Novell Netware administration, some Unix administration, and some basic C
programming if you worked in a library: they removed that option around 2003
and never brought it back, and replaced those inmate workers with paid staff
positions. In 2009, they eliminated those staff positions and moved back to
the paper method of managing library records (with card catalogues and
borrower cards)). Prisoners have nothing to do, so they socialize with other
prisoners, and they organize prison gangs, learn how to become better or more
effective criminals, and leave prison more enamored to go back out and do more
crime.

A great example of this is the Heartless Felons gang in Ohio -- they started
in the youth prisons in the state around 2004/2005, and, now they are in every
prison in Ohio and in most of the major cities.

Unfortunately, I really think that the solution isn't more prisons or more
programs, it's reforming the way that we sentence and punish people. As a
society, we need to be able to differentiate between the people who as a
society, we are truly afraid of (and send them to prison for intensive
rehabilitation) and people we are just mad at (and send them to therapy,
community based work programs, and community based correctional facilities --
keeping them in the towns where their families live so that their children
don't become the next group of Heartless Felons.

