Why Parole Matters
Parole 101
Parole allows incarcerated people to have their sentence reviewed by the Prisoner Review Board after a set period of time. If deemed safe by the board, rehabilitated individuals earn their transition to complete their sentence under community supervision. They return home to their families and jobs while remaining under the custody of the Department of Corrections. People on parole have regular check-ins with a parole officer as well as stipulated rules to follow until the end of their supervision. Violating these rules can potentially send them back to prison.
Parole Process
Historically, parole was used together with indeterminate sentencing, where judges sentenced people to an indeterminate amount of time in prison, including a minimum and a maximum number of years. People became eligible for parole review when they reached the minimum of this range.
Example: Jacob commits a crime and is given a parole-eligible sentence of 20–30 years. Once he reaches 20 years, Jacob becomes parole-eligible, at which point he goes before the parole board members who determine whether or not he’s ready to transition to community supervision. If granted, he stays on parole for a specified amount of time (up to 10 years until he’s served 30 years cumulative). If denied, he has subsequent parole hearings until he’s granted parole or maxes out his sentence (30 years).
Why Parole?
Parole helps shift our system from caging people to rehabilitating people. Not only does a fair parole system periodically evaluate incarcerated individuals and guard against decades of costly and senseless over-incarceration, it provides incarcerated individuals with clear standards for rehabilitation and incentive to achieve those standards.
The Earned Reentry Bill is common sense.
A. Earned Reentry targets those most prepared to return home.
People who have served long sentences are most likely to have transformed their lives and aged out of crime. Earned Reentry provides a mechanism to review such people who’ve been incarcerated for years and are no longer the same people they were when convicted decades ago.
B. Earned Reentry offers a solution that’s based on science.
Studies show recidivism rates decline with age, starting with a sharp drop as individuals reach their mid-20s. FAMM and Prison Policy Initiative both recommend reviewing sentences after no more than 15 years. Earned Reentry takes a crucial step in aligning the law with science by providing a mechanism of review at 20 years.
C. Earned Reentry provides a structured and merit-based way to reduce the prison population.
The Bill utilizes the existing Prisoner Review Board—which has a much higher rate of success than other methods of release. Parole is granted only to candidates who earn release by fulfilling specific criteria and demonstrating readiness to rejoin society.
D. Earned Reentry offers hope and incentive for positive change.
The possibility of parole provides motivation for maintaining relationships and preparing for a productive life. This source of hope for those serving long sentences and their families, in turn, helps to make prisons safer for the people who live and work there.
Victims Support Parole
According to a 2016 Alliance for Safety and Justice national poll of crime survivors, 69% of survivors supported alternatives to incarceration, such as mental-health treatment and other forms of rehabilitation that focused on positive transformation. Crime victims, people convicted of crime, and their families all suffer when over-incarceration forestalls such transformation, keeps families broken, and prevents communities from healing. When joined with re-entry services, a fair parole system can help restore people to useful citizenship and allow victims, convicted people, and their families to mend.
Parole Is Not Mandatory Supervised Release
Parole is sometimes confused with Mandatory Supervised Release (MSR). Unlike parole, MSR is a period of intense supervision added to someone’s punishment after they have served their entire sentence. MSR is often informally referred to as “parole” because the supervising officers are called “parole officers.” However, MSR is an additional punishment, not a form of early release.