Latest news with #AlabamaBoardofPardonsandParoles
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6 days ago
- General
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Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles issues proposed parole guidelines
A prison corridor in Holman Correctional Facility in 2019. The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles earlier this month issued new parole guidelines shortly after the Alabama Legislature made their funding contigent on their development. (File) The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles earlier this month published an updated version of parole guidelines, weeks after the Alabama Legislature voted to make the board's funding conditional on their development. The state determines whether a person should be recommended for parole based on a a point system that accumulates based on a person's predicted risk for recidivism and whether that person will endanger the public. If applicants receive a score of at least 8, the guidelines recommend they be denied. Under the proposed guidelines, With the proposed guidelines under consideration, the parole guidelines recommend that people be denied parole if they receive a score of 9 or higher. The changes add weight to the crime committed by the applicant. Based on the current guidelines, those who commit the most severe crimes receive two points, but the updated guidelines increase it to four points. A severe offense using the current guidelines is given two points. That is the same number of points in the proposed guidelines for an offense characterized as moderate. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The new guidelines also use the Ohio Risk Assessment System or the Sex Offender Risk Assessment, which are the same as the current guidelines. However, the updated proposal does not consider a risk assessment from the Alabama Department of Corrections, the institution that most closely tracks the applicant's behavior while incarcerated. Messages seeking comment were left Tuesday with the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles and Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, who chairs the Legislative Joint Prison Oversight Committee, and who has also criticized the parole board. Chambliss introduced the budget amendment that required the board to issue the new guidelines to receive funding. The parole guidelines remain voluntary, and members of the parole board have the authority to deny parole to applicants even though the guidelines recommend they be afforded parole. Some legislators and criminal justice advocates Tuesday had specific problems with some of the criteria, such as weighing the severity of the crime more heavily than in the past to other factors, from a person's age to the risk assessment from the Alabama Department of Corrections. Those considerations were not included in the new guidelines. Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, a longtime critic of the board's relatively low parole rates, said Tuesday the new guidelines seemed aimed at increasing the board's 'conformance rate,' or the frequency at which its decisions align with parole guidelines. The board's rate has been at roughly 20% for the past several years. 'I think it is unfortunate the new guidelines don't take into account all the things that some of the applicants have done in order to gain their freedom,' he said. England also called it 'odd' that Corrections' assessment was not included. 'The Department of Corrections basically allows someone to work unsupervised everyday offsite and leave for 72 hours at a time and earn that trust from the Department of Corrections, that the Board doesn't appear to take that into account,' he said. Others said the guidelines do not capture factors that weigh in the applicants' favor, particularly in the section that measures an applicant's behavior while incarcerated. According to the proposed guidelines, a person can receive points for sanctions for both violent and nonviolent actions known as disciplinaries within the past 12 months. 'There are people who have not gotten any disciplinary infractions for the past 10 years or five years and that hard work will not count in their favor for parole,' said Carla Crowder, executive director of Alabama Appleseed, a criminal justice reform organization. 'The restriction to evaluating only 12 months of institutional behavior then serves as a disincentive to follow the rules over the long term.' Another concern is the re-entry plan. Applicants will receive a penalty totaling either one or two points if they submit a reentry plan that is not complete. But to submit a completed reentry plan, it must include both work and home plans. 'It is very difficult for people to gain employment if they are still incarcerated,' Crowder said, explaining that the lack of a job plan should not count against someone, especially people who have no access to online resources to apply for employment or to reentry staff to assist them in that process. By that logic, applicants will automatically be awarded at least one point counted against them for parole. Critics also say the guidelines penalize applicants if anyone from the public, regardless of whether they are the victim or not, speaks against them. The Alabama Attorney General's Office as well as a staff member from Victims of Crime and Leniency (VOCAL), a victims' rights group, regularly attend the parole hearings to oppose parole. Oftentimes, VOCAL does speak with the applicant and bases their recommendations solely on the person's criminal record. 'Also, all the evidence suggests that a person's chances of committing another crime decreases dramatically with age, and there is no section in the parole guidelines where old age is a factor,' Crowder said. 'This is a missed opportunity.' Criminal justice reform advocates, and more recently legislators, have been increasingly concerned with a dramatic decrease in the number of paroles the board has granted in recent years. There will be a public comment period on the proposed updates for the next month. If a legislator has an issue with the proposals, the person can ask that they be reviewed by the Legislative Council who can either reject them entirely, amend them, or accept them. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Yahoo
Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Paroles board proposes changes to scoring guidelines
ALABAMA (WHNT) — The Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Paroles board released a new set of guidelines that could change who can get a second chance. However, it doesn't make it easier for some to get that fresh start. Just like in golf, a high Baseline Parole Guideline Total Score isn't a good thing. The Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Paroles has a whole scoring system it uses when suggesting that a judge grant an inmate parole. Based on the current standards revised in 2020, an inmate could be suggested for parole if they score 0-7. This score scale would also suggest that a judge denies parole for an inmate if they score an 8 or higher. The guidelines, as they stand now, rank inmates in six categories: Severity of Offense of Conviction Actuarial Assessments Institutional Behavior Participation in Risk-Reducing Programming/Treatment Reentry Progress Stakeholder and Community Input 'The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles considers relevant offender information when making parole decisions, including static and dynamic risk factors, individual factors, and stakeholder input, while applying professional judgment in each case. The Parole Guidelines ensure the consistent review of certain common decisional factors for all offenders. The Baseline Score is used in conjunction with the individual case review and parole hearing as the Board considers the offender's parole readiness.' Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles Below are the current guidelines for granting an inmate parole. ABPP-Form-2-Parole-Guidelines-Revised-07.13.20Download The 2025 proposed parole changes, posted on May 14, add more specific scores/categories, take away some of the scoring categories, as well as make the final total score more detailed. The proposed changes (indicated by bold letters/numbers) by the board are: Current Guidelines- 2020 Proposed Revision Guidelines- 2025 1. Severity of Offense of ConvictionLow = +0Moderate = +1High = +2 1. Severity of Offense of ConvictionLow = +1Moderate = +2 High = +3Very High = +4 2. Actuarial AssessmentsNO CHANGES 2. Actuarial AssessmentsNO CHANGES 3. Institutional Behavior0 disciplinaries within last 12 months = +01 disciplinary involving violence w/in last 12 months = +22 or more disciplinaries involving violence w/in last 12 months = +51 or more non-violent disciplinaries w/in 12 months = +1 3. Institutional Behavior0 disciplinaries within last 12 months = +01 or 2 non-violent disciplinaries within last 12 months = +13 or more non-violent disciplinaries within last 12 months = +21 disciplinary involving violence within last 12 months = +3Multiple disciplinaries involving violence within last 12 months = +5 4. Participation in Risk-Reducing Programming/TreatmentCompletion of required programs = +0Deficient programs, reasonable efforts made = +0Deficient programs, no reasonable effort made = +2Deficient Programs, unacceptable compliance = +3 4. Participation in Risk-Reducing Programming/TreatmentCompletion required programs = +0Deficient programming = +2Refusal/unacceptable compliance = +3 5. Reentry PlanNO CHANGE 5. Reentry PlanNO CHANGE 6. Stakeholder and Community InputSupport = +0Neutral/none = +1Opposition = +2 6. Stakeholder and Community InputSupport only, with no opposition = +0Support and opposition, or no input = +1 Opposition only = +2 Baseline Parole Guideline Total ScoreSuggest Parole Grant = 0-7Suggest Parole Denial = 8+ Baseline Parole Guideline Total ScoreSuggest Parole Grant = 0-5Neutral = 6-8Suggest Parole Denial = 9+ The final date for public comment and completion of the notice is July 4, 2025. You can view the revised parole guidelines below. Pardons_and_Paroles_Alabama_Board_of_–_Repeal_and_Replace_Rule_640-X-A-2_ProposalDownload News 19 has reached out to the Alabama Department of Corrections for a statement on these proposed guidelines, but has not received a response. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alabama lawmakers to Parole Board: Produce guidelines or lose your funding
Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, speaks with Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, in the Alabama Senate, Feb. 25, 2005. The General Fund budget includes an admentment he proposed to require the Parole Board to complete an update on the parole guidelines. (Photo/Stew Milne for the Alabama Reflector) If next year's budget is any indication, Alabama lawmakers have lost patience with the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. The 2026 General Fund Gov. Kay Ivey signed last week makes funding for the board dependent on drafting new parole guidelines that determine the likelihood that an applicant can be safely released on parole. The budget goes into effect on Oct. 1. Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, the chair of the Joint Legislative Prison Committee, introduced the amendment shortly before the Senate approved the budget on April 29. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'When a state entity does not follow state law, I think it is incumbent upon us in our oversight role to do whatever we need to do, or can do, to help them follow state law,' he said in an interview last week. 'And the power of the purse is really about the only tool that we have to do that.' The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles did not return messages sent last week seeking comment. Lawmakers also cut the General Fund allocation to the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, the agency that oversees reentry and rehabilitation for people in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections, by 4.1%, bringing it from $94.5 million to $90.6 million. Lawmakers enacted legislation in 2019 that updated rules on parole, part of a broader overhaul of the parole system after Jimmy O'Neal Spencer, who had been serving two life sentences, was mistakenly released on parole in late 2017. The following year, Spencer killed three people, including a seven-year-old child, during a robbery in Guntersville. Spencer was later convicted of the murders and sentenced to death. The 2019 law required the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles to update the parole guidelines within three years, based on evidence and data for those who were released. The Parole Board missed the 2022 deadline and has yet to release an updated version required by state law. Several lawmakers expressed frustration with the Parole Board, particularly chair Leigh Gwathney, after they did not receive any response from a set of questions concerning the low parole rate and their process for deciding who should be granted parole and who should be denied that were submitted in the spring of 2024. At a meeting of the Joint Legislative Prison Oversight Committee meeting in October, Gwathney gave meandering replies to lawmakers' questions. Chambliss demanded that Gwathney provide her responses by the end of November. They never received any response. 'We didn't get a response,' Chambliss said. 'When the Attorney General's Office got involved and asked questions, apparently a response was prepared in November, but we never got it.' Chambliss said that he only made his final decision to introduce the amendment shortly before he took the floor on April 29. But Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, one of the most vocal critics of the Parole Board, said he understood it could be a possibility when he learned that lawmakers were discussing the proposal among themselves toward the start of the current legislative session. England said the amendment is the result of actions of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, particularly Gwathney. 'The money being taken away isn't to suggest that the Bureau is doing a good job with reentry and rehabilitation, but it is to focus on the fact that the chair, who has been there since 2019, is not following the law and defying the Legislature openly.' The amendment was one of several actions taken by Democrats and Republicans in an attempt to create additional oversight for the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles that they believe has flouted their oversight authority. SB 324, also sponsored by Chambliss, would increase the number of Parole Board members from three to five and allow members of the Board to appoint their own chair instead of the governor making the appointment. HB 40, sponsored by England, would create a commission that would create a validated risk and needs assessment, as well as parole release and classification guidelines for people in custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections. It would also requires the Parole Board to adhere to the parole guidelines when making decisions and disclose reasons for not adhering to them in any parole decision. But with just one day left in the 2025 session, neither bill seems likely to get to Gov. Kay Ivey's desk. England's legislation remains stalled in the House chamber. Chambliss' bill has passed the Senate and squeaked though the House Judiciary Committee in April, but will compete with many other bills seeking approval on the final day of the session Wednesday. That leaves the amendment, which says that the board's funding for 'personnel and employee benefit costs' will be released 'after the board revises and adopts guidelines concerning the granting or denial of paroles, and make available on the Board's website.' 'My guess and my hope are that they will update the guidelines,' Chambliss said. 'If they do that, then it is a moot point. I am pretty confident, I heard they are working on it.' His amendment received unanimous support from the Senate when it was introduced. 'We do that all the time with money, that is a stick that legislators have that if someone is not following the law, whatever that may be, to use money to say, 'Hey, if you are not going to do this, then we are going to withhold funds,'' said Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Parole rates declined dramatically, falling to the single digit percentages at times during 2023 before increasing slightly to roughly 25%. The parole rates were low even though the conformance rates, the percentage that the decisions of the Parole Board aligned with the recommendations based on the parole guidelines, was about 20%. During the meeting in October, Gwathney said she altered the score sheets to favor parole applicants, and even then, the parole rate remained low. 'What we wanted was several years of data to figure out if the guidelines worked or not, but since they were not being followed, and the conformance rate was so low, and the chair admitted to changing them to fit whatever goals she had, not only do we not have the data, but the data is corrupted,' England said. 'We wasted a bunch of time, and we wasted a bunch of money.' Controversy regarding the parole rate has become so problematic that civil rights groups have weighed in on the issue. 'It is good to see a little added accountability with some financial strings attached to it to ensure compliance with, honestly, what the Parole Board is supposed to have been doing for years,' said Jerome Dees, policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alabama parole board changes squeak through House committee
Leigh Gwathney, left, Chair of the Board of Pardons and Paroles and Darryl Littleton, center, an associate member of the board, listen to testimony during a hearing in Montgomery, Ala., on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. A House committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would make changes to the size of the board and its appointment powers. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector) An Alabama House committee narrowly approved a bill on Wednesday that changes some of the rules pertaining to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles amid some final minute dramatics that required one lawmaker to return to the meeting to cast his vote. The House Judiciary Committee approved SB 324, sponsored by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, by a vote of 8-7. Initially, the measure would have failed because of a tied vote, but Rep. Jim Hill, R-Odenville, the committee chair, requested that someone reach out to Rep. Ontario Tillman, D-Bessemer, to return to the committee after leaving to cast the tie-breaking vote that ultimately led to bill getting approved by the committee. 'I got some work to do,' Chambliss said in an interview after the vote. 'I will work with all the interested parties. You know, I have seen bills that are further apart than this one. We sit down and talk through it all and see what everyone can live with.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The vote came a day after the Senate voted to cut funding for the board in the final version of the General Fund budget and made its remaining funding contingent on updating the parole guidelines which are used to determine whether an applicant should be granted parole. SB 324 increases the number of people who can serve on the parole board from three to five; moves the power to appoint the chair from the governor to the board itself and establishes guidelines for the board when they set the next parole hearing for applicants who are denied. The original version of the bill Chambliss filed remained largely intact when it was approved by the Senate last week except for a single amendment proposed by Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, pertaining to the timeline for nominating a candidate to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. The board members, regardless of whether their terms have expired or not, will be appointed by the Governor's Office based on a list of names from a nominating committee comprising the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate. SB 324 also lays out timelines for parole hearings. For those serving up to 20 years in prison, the parole board may set the next hearing no more than two years from the time that the person's parole application was denied. Those serving a life sentence after committing one or more violent Class A felonies are permitted another hearing within 10 years of being denied. People who are considered for parole for medical reasons may receive another parole hearing within 180 days after the parole board rejects their application. Others are eligible for another parole hearing with five years of getting rejected for parole by the Board. Chambliss introduced SB 324 Wednesday by referring to a meeting of the Joint Prison Oversight Committee in October 2023 in which Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles Chair Leigh Gwathney answered lawmakers' questions in ways they considered meandering or unresponsive. Chambliss characterized the meeting as a 'little bit of a fiasco.' 'The law says that those guidelines are to be updated periodically,' Chambliss said to the committee during the meeting Wednesday. 'And the law says that they have to do that. Well, they have not done that. As a matter of fact, they only adhere to the guidelines 20% of the time.' According to data obtained from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, the conformance rate, the percentage that the parole board's decisions match with Bureau's recommendations based on the guidelines, is between 22%-27%. The Alabama Attorney General's Office publicly stated that it opposed the legislation. 'Needless to say, the makeup of the parole board is a very delicate thing,' said Katherine Robertson, chief counsel for the Alabama Attorney General's Office. 'As we know from recent history, it has a very direct implications on public safety.' She also referred to the General Fund budget. 'There was an amendment added to the General Fund budget that would address the guidelines issue that was added by the Senate that says the Board doesn't get their money until they do what he (Chambliss) is talking about on the guidelines,' Robertson said. 'I am sure they have gotten the message when it comes to that.' Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Cobb supported the legislation. 'We want the state to stop wasting money holding individuals who have proven they are no longer the same person when they were convicted,' she said. 'And have either through their health, or their prison record, demonstrated they would be almost impossible to reoffend.' Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, a longtime critic of the board, was among the strongest supporters of the legislation. 'This is about the ability to have oversight over the system that could potentially go out of control either way,' he said in an interview following the meeting. 'Set aside how you feel about releases, and who is getting out and who is not, just look at how broken the process is.' Other committee members voted against the bill in the hopes that others would have more time to provide feedback. 'I do think this is the makings of a good bill,' said Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne. 'I do think this is something I am very eager to hopefully get together to get more people on and have a conversation. I do think we have to bring more people to the table, specifically VOCAL (Victims of Crime and Leniency).' VOCAL opposed the legislation. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Third time's a charm: Alabama House committee approves state parole board reform bill
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa (right) speaks with Rep. Jim Hill, R-Odenville, on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on Feb. 12, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a bill sponsored by England to create oversight of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles and develop parole standards. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama House Judiciary Committee Wednesday approved a bill that would create parole guidelines and subject the state's parole board to oversight after three years of effort by the bill's sponsor. HB 40, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, passed the committee on an 8-6. Four Republicans joined all four Democrats on the committee in supporting the bill. England said after the vote that he viewed it as a sign that legislators' frustrations with the parole board and relatively low parole rates in the state were mounting. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'I think it is a recognition that the current parole board, and the process itself, is broken,' England said in an interview following the meeting. 'Like I said in the presentation today, any board that exists that has openly not followed the law, has worked to change the guidelines without any sort of oversight, and is currently pushing back on any efforts for us to get information about how the work is going, needs some sort of oversight.' Parole rates have declined dramatically since 2017 when members of the board granted parole to about 54% of applicants. At points since, the rates have fallen to single digits, sometimes as low as 7%, according to an analysis by the ACLU of Alabama in 2023. They rebounded to slightly more than 20% within the past year. England's bill would create a Criminal Justice Policy Development Council, composed of legislators, agency leaders and victim advocates, that would oversee the creation of a validated risk assessment tool for use by both the Alabama Department of Corrections as well as the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. The council would also create and adopt parole guidelines to be used by the Alabama Board of Pardons to determine parole grants. It will also update the inmate classification system for use by the ADOC. The bill also mandates that the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles create parole release guidelines to gauge whether someone currently incarcerated can be released from prison without fear of public safety. 'The parole release guidelines shall be used by the board in the parole process and shall promote the use of prison space for the most violent and greatest risk offenders, while recognizing that the board's paramount duty is to protect public safety,' the bill states. The guidelines developed by the parole board will be based on the validated risk assessment, as well as input from victims, prosecutors and law enforcement and the parole applicant. It will also incorporate input from the applicant's behavior while incarcerated and whether the individual participated in programs while in prison to reduce the risk of reoffending. The bill requires that the parole board give a reason when they decide whether to grant parole that deviates from the parole release guidelines. England's bill allows applicants to appeal the parole board's decision to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals should they be denied. England sold his legislation to colleagues by telling them his legislation will offer greater accountability and transparency for the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. Lawmakers from both parties have voiced growing frustration with the Board and the Alabama Department of Corrections in recent years. Family and friends of those incarcerated described violence, extortion attempts and sexual assaults against their loved ones at several Joint Prison Oversight Committee meetings in the past two years. During one meeting of the Contract Review Committee in June last year, Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, urged ADOC staff to intervene after a constituent reported receiving a video from a prison threatening a sexual assault against their incarcerated child if they did not pay the person. In the fall 2024, lawmakers asked Leigh Gwathney, chair of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, pointed questions about why her agency has not answered their questions. England's bill has faced strong opposition on the House Judiciary Committee in the past. But lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee were more muted on Wednesday. Rep. Cynthia Almond, R-Tuscaloosa asked England if other states implemented similar measures. 'Some of the language that was put into this bill came from concepts that other states had,' England said. Another lawmaker, Rep. Bryan Brinyark, R-Northport, asked England if there was any associated cost with the reforms, to which England there were not unless the Council hired a third party to assist with research. Almond voted against the bill while Brinyark voted in favor of it. The bill moves to the full House. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
