{"id":17824,"date":"2025-10-07T09:16:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/?p=17824"},"modified":"2025-10-08T15:55:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T19:55:48","slug":"parole-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/2025\/10\/07\/parole-report\/","title":{"rendered":"New report, <i>Parole in Perspective,<\/i> shines a light on how parole boards work and how parole decisions are made in 35 states"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative pulls back the curtain on parole release systems, providing the most accessible and comprehensive source to date for comparing how these essential &mdash; and often dysfunctional &mdash; release mechanisms are set up in 35 states. The report, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/parole.html\"><i>Parole in Perspective<\/i>,<\/a> reveals that parole releases are on the decline in <i>nearly every state<\/i> that uses discretionary parole, highlighting elements of the process that contribute to this urgent problem.<\/p>\n<picture><source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"\/\/static.prisonpolicy.org\/images\/parole_overview_map.webp 1x, \/\/static.prisonpolicy.org\/images\/parole_overview_map-2X.webp 2x\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/static.prisonpolicy.org\/images\/parole_overview_map.png\" alt=\"A map showing the states that have discretionary parole in the U.S.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"featureimage tightfeature\">\n<\/picture>\n<p><i>Parole in Perspective<\/i> comprises two parts, each honing in on different elements of parole release. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/parole_part1.html\">The first<\/a> explores the makeup of boards and how they conduct hearings. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/parole_part2.html\">The second<\/a> dives into new data on hearings and grants, and the factors that boards consider &mdash; including their discretion &mdash; in determining whether someone will be released.<\/p>\n<p class=\"prelist\">The report contains four essential data tables showing:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/parole_appendix1_boards_hearings.html\">How parole boards in 35 states are composed<\/a> and how they hold hearings;<\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/parole_appendix2_grantrates.html\">number of parole hearings and grants<\/a> in every state from 2019-2024;<\/li>\n<li>How parole boards compare on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/parole_appendix3_criteria.html\">the criteria they use<\/a> to determine release;<\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/parole_appendix3_criteria_text.html\">exact statutory text<\/a> guiding parole boards&#8217; decisionmaking in every state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i>Parole in Perspective<\/i> coincides with the Prison Policy Initiative and MacArthur Justice Center&#8217;s release of their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macarthurjustice.org\/principles-for-parole-reform\/\">Principles for Parole Reform,<\/a> a guiding &#8220;North Star&#8221; document designed to help activists and policymakers identify priorities for reform in their states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"prelist\">Both the new report and the Principles for Parole Reform identify crucial flaws in parole systems today, including:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"list\">\n<li>Relying too heavily on <b>factors outside of applicants&#8217; control<\/b> &mdash; such as &#8220;the severity of the offense&#8221; or a perception that release would &#8220;diminish the seriousness of the crime&#8221;;<\/li>\n<li>Making <b>irrational parole decisions<\/b> in favor of keeping applicants locked up, often flying in the face of what risk assessment tools recommend;<\/li>\n<li>Stacking boards with <b>law enforcement professionals,<\/b> while ignoring the perspective of people with experiences of incarceration;<\/li>\n<li>Increasingly holding <b>virtual rather than face-to-face hearings,<\/b> or worse, not affording parole applicants a hearing at all.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Despite their differences, all discretionary parole systems have serious design flaws that lead to an unfair preparation and hearing process for incarcerated people,&#8221; said report author Leah Wang. &#8220;By shining a light on boards and their practices, we hope to lay a path toward making these systems real tools for decarceration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The full report is available at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/parole.html\">https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/parole.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite their differences, all discretionary parole systems have serious design flaws and most are steadily releasing fewer people, a new report shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"coauthors":[46],"class_list":["post-17824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17824"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17831,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17824\/revisions\/17831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17824"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}